State Tests Tardy at Many Schools : Education: Late delivery of the controversial standard exams throws some district’s schedules into turmoil.

Delay in delivery of exam materials has forced hundreds of schools throughout the state to postpone the second round of California’s controversial standardized tests, resulting in scheduling conflicts and administrative headaches.

Many Southern California school districts that were supposed to give the California Learning Assessment System tests during the past few weeks have been forced to put plans on hold because materials did not arrive in time.

Most have since received their packages--a week or more later than expected and, in some cases, rushed via air freight--but some were still waiting Wednesday.

“In essence, it’s thrown our whole testing schedule into chaos,” complained Peter J. Boothroyd, assistant superintendent of Brea Olinda Unified, one of at least seven Orange County districts affected by the delays. “How we’re going to undo that mess will be determined by what day they arrive. If the tests arrive tomorrow we’ll be OK, but we don’t know. . . . We’re just sitting on hold.”

State officials are unsure how extensive the delivery problem is. Minnesota-based Questar Data Systems Inc., the company hired to package and deliver the tests for the state, is currently preparing a report detailing how widespread the delays were and how much extra it will cost, state Department of Education spokeswoman Susie Lange said.

Lange attributed the delay to “just a series of problems . . . with moving millions of sheets of paper” and said Questar was not entirely responsible for the delay. Despite the problems, she said, all eligible students will be able to take the tests this spring.

Now in its second year, CLAS will test well over 1 million fourth-, fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders at a cost of $26 million. Several private companies in California and out of state handle parts of the processing under state contract, and testing dates are staggered based on school schedules.

Though in most cases tests have only been delayed about a week, the situation has launched further criticism of CLAS, which in recent weeks has been attacked because of problems in scoring last year’s tests and by conservative groups outraged over its content.

“For most schools, it’s just an inconvenience,” Lange said of the delays. “I’m not minimizing that, but there were no costs incurred for them. It’s just a matter of rescheduling.”

But local school officials are worried that CLAS will now conflict with other standardized tests planned for later in the spring or long-ago scheduled events such as field trips, open houses or staff development days.

“We put out to schools in August the testing calendar for the coming year and they try to schedule other things around that,” Los Angeles Unified testing coordinator Linda B. Lownes said. “Now this piles a lot of tests on top of each other and schools will be trying to give the CLAS tests at times they have . . . other things planned.”

Administrators also said they are frustrated that arrangements they made for CLAS testing are now for naught, and that there is less time to sort through the material and train teachers to give the new segments of the tests.

And while principals typically warn students, teachers and parents of testing days to encourage attendance, a good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast, some administrators said they now will be forced to spring the tests on children with no notice.

In Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest district, hundreds of schools were scheduled to administer the tests this month, Lownes said. Calling the situation “very, very disruptive,” she said the district has postponed CLAS three times and now plans to give CLAS between May 4 and June 3--the same period previously set aside for the California Test of Basic Skills, which is given to all students.

Orange County’s largest district, Santa Ana Unified, got its materials on time and is in the midst of testing. But other local districts that had some delays include Anaheim Elementary as well as Brea-Olinda, Capistrano, Los Alamitos, Orange, Placentia-Yorba Linda and Tustin unified.

Anaheim’s testing coordinator Rebecca Welsh echoed Lownes’ annoyance.

“We have a master calendar. We’re required by law to do this (give CLAS tests). When we aren’t given the materials, it’s very frustrating,” Welsh said. “That’s the thing, we can’t solve our own problems. We have no control over it, that’s the frustration.”

In most cases, the delays have been short--a few days to a couple of weeks.

“We were kind of panicked for a while until we settled down and realized it wasn’t a big problem, it was something we could deal with,” Placentia-Yorba Linda testing technician Mary Farrell said. “The feeling around here is, what are you going to do? It’s just one of those things. We have to accommodate.”

According to the state’s plan, each school district was to give the tests between its 135th and 155th day of instruction, with some starting in March and others testing through the first weeks of June, but most scheduled for April and May. Schools planning to test next week or afterward should not have any delays, Lange said.

Questar was supposed to collate and deliver the exam packages on a rolling schedule that matched each school’s calendar and testing plan.

The disruptions began last month. Administrators who were awaiting arrival of the tests instead received a series of memos from Questar announcing the delays. None explained the cause.

“The Department of Education apologizes for the inconvenience this will cause you and the schools in your district,” Questar CLAS Coordinator Ruta Engstrom wrote in memos March 28 and April 13. “We are doing everything possible to assure that your materials will be delivered as soon as possible without jeopardizing the accuracy of the complex packaging process.”

CLAS will test students in reading, writing, math, science and history and measure performance against tough statewide standards. The performance-based assessments are designed to evaluate students’ thought processes as well as their ability to derive correct answers.

Results of the 1993 tests released in March painted a grim portrait of California students, with one-third demonstrating little or no understanding of basic math concepts.

The delivery delays, administrators said, are just the latest CLAS-related hassle.

“I don’t want to be too hard on the state, because this is the first time we’re doing something like this and there are always glitches and bugs, but it has become so typical, it’s demoralizing,” Capistrano Unified Supt. James A. Fleming said. “It’s just a continued indication of the poor planning that has taken place.”