ST. PAUL  — The Minnesota Department of Education plans to resume online proficiency testing for students today.

The department had suspended testing after school districts and students had problems logging into the testing system on three days over the past two weeks.

Minnesota has a $38 million, three-year contract with Pearson to administer proficiency testing in math, science and reading. Students in third-grade to high school take the tests annually.

Pearson told the Education Department that last week’s problems stemmed from a server failure and a server’s inability to distribute heavy loads of student traffic. On Tuesday, Pearson said someone tried to disrupt the system by overwhelming it with web traffic.

Pearson said the company has taken corrective action.

Because of the delays, the department will extend the testing window by two days.

Albert Lea’s elementary schools and middle school that were slated for testing before the suspension will resume testing today.

Tests that had been scheduled included third-, fourth- and seventh-grade reading, along with sixth-grade math. MCA testing locally began April 7, according to the Albert Lea Area Schools online calendar.