Statewide Test Results Delayed by L.A. Unified

The Los Angeles Unified School District turned in nearly half of its Stanford 9 answer sheets two weeks after a July 1 deadline, forcing a delay in the release of statewide test scores until the end of this month, officials said Tuesday.

L.A. Unified failed to send 250,000 of 530,000 answer sheets by the deadline to the test scorer, NCS Pearson in Iowa City. The company did not have time to compute the data so that they could be released by the state over the Internet on Aug. 15, as planned.

Instead, the state Department of Education announced Tuesday that it had postponed releasing the scores--for individual schools, districts, counties and the state--until Aug. 29.

“It’s a very serious mistake,” said L.A. Unified Supt. Roy Romer, who promised disciplinary action against those responsible. “I’m very disappointed that the organization failed.”

The 250,000 late answer sheets account for 5% of the 4.5 million tests given statewide last spring in grades 2 to 11.

Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public instruction, said that computing the scores with data missing from Los Angeles would have thrown off statewide results.

“I have expressed to Supt. ... Romer my deep disappointment in LAUSD’s lack of promptness,” Eastin said in a statement. “We regret any inconvenience that may result from this change.”

The two-week delay will not keep other districts from getting their test scores directly from the scoring company. Many districts already have received their scores and have sent individual students’ results home to parents, state officials said.

Some parents of L.A. Unified students already have received individual students’ results. But those with children at schools that missed the July 1 deadline will receive them in the last week of August.

Romer said the breakdown occurred at four testing centers, scattered throughout the district, that collect answer sheets from schools. Those centers, he said, were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of paperwork coming in at the last minute.

On top of that, he said, the centers struggled to meet new demands, including a state requirement to assemble blank answer sheets for students who did not take the test. Those students either were absent or were exempted at their parents’ request.

In many cases, clerks at the centers had to meet with school testing coordinators to identify students who had missed the test, Romer said.

Romer said the testing centers’ staff failed to ask for help or notify district headquarters in time to correct the problem by the July 1 deadline.

He learned about the missed deadline three weeks after the fact, he said.

Romer said that because the answer sheets remained in the district’s hands longer than anticipated, he has asked the district’s inspector general to ensure that there was no tampering. He said he believes there were no breaches of security.

State education officials said the delay will not affect the release of other testing data in the coming months. Romer said L.A. Unified will have to pay about $50,000 for NCS Pearson to rerun the test scores with the late batch from Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Unified School Board member David Tokofsky said the delayed test scores will hamper schools from analyzing academic progress and placing students this fall in the right classes.

“This is disruptive to schools,” he said. “I am deeply apologetic to everyone who is adversely affected by this,” he said.