For the first 1-3 years, I believe, states/districts will have the option of paying extra for paper versions of the test. That's only a transitional option, tho

For the first 1-3 years, I believe, states/districts will have the option of paying extra for paper versions of the test. That's only a transitional option, though, and paper will be deprecated in favor of the online test. (One exception -- paper tests will be available indefinitely for students with special needs who can't take the test online.) One of the big problems with online tests that we're seeing in some of our school districts is that many students don't have great typing or computer skills. Even though most students can probably type well enough to complete the tests, the extra mental challenge of typing is likely to artificially lower scores. So a test that purports to measure math skills might actually be measuring a combination of math skills + computer skills, and a school that's worked really hard to teach math might get docked because students haven't had a lot of computer experience. This doesn't necessarily mean that online testing is a bad idea, but just one of the many things that we need to take into account.