Heads Should Roll Over This : Gov. Wilson must personally probe state Education Department for test scandal

California spent $15 million a year ago for a much-needed new system of tests designed to better measure what public-school students were actually learning and how well equipped they were to meet the future. Now it appears that a San Jose principal’s description of the exercise as a “waste of money” was apt: The scoring was marked by outrageous errors.

Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature should demand an explanation from the state Education Department, and the department should re-evaluate the company that administered the tests and those state officials who supervised the company. If people have to be removed, so be it. The errors must not be repeated.

One million pupils in the fourth, eighth and 10th grades took the new California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) tests for reading, writing and mathematics. Education Department officials argued there was not enough time or money to score all the tests, so only about half were graded. But a computer analysis by The Times showed numerous instances where the state failed to meet its own guidelines of scoring at least 25% of the exams taken at every school. Thus the results of the tests were far less accurate than promised.

In Orange County, for example, there were six schools where less than 25% of the tests were scored. In a San Bernardino County middle school, only 1% of the math tests were scored.

At Roosevelt Elementary in Indio, 169 students took the tests, but only four papers were graded. The results reported that everyone scored at the lowest possible level in mathematics. The principal was right to be furious. Her school has been maligned, with blame reflecting onto her and her teachers. Worse, she cannot know if the state “grade” given to the school is largely correct, half right, mostly wrong or totally bogus. How can she know what, if anything, needs fixing?

These were not harmless errors. The results prompted parents to ask private schools about getting their children admitted; there were renewed calls to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The CLAS methods and goals remain promising. Multiple-choice exams have been replaced by tests requiring students to write some answers and explain how they solved a problem. Students are not graded against one another but against a fixed standard. The state hopes eventually to test all pupils, if the Legislature funds the exams each year.

But the rush to put the testing in place needlessly provided ammunition to the critics of the new system. In such a sensitive, vital area as children’s education, mistakes like this one cost too dearly. Fix the errors before giving the tests again. The promised apologies will not make up for the harm that has been done.