Penalty deal nearing over proficiency test foul-up

Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state and a national testing company that made mistakes in grading the examinations of more than 700 Nevada high school students are "pretty close" to reaching an agreement on a fine, an education official said.

The state Board of Education is being called into a special session Monday to consider the agreement, if it is reached with Harcourt Educational Measurement. If no agreement is reached, the board will consider other action.

Keith Rheault, deputy state superintendent of public instruction, said today there is no settlement, "but we hope to have a final offer."

"We're still talking," Rheault said. "We haven't broken off talks."

Rick Blake, vice president of corporate communications for Harcourt, said the talks are still going and he's confident an agreement can be reached.

The state Education Department proposed a "substantial" fine against Harcourt, which countered with a proposal for a lesser penalty. Rheault said the first counteroffer by Harcourt was unacceptable. The amounts of the state's proposed fine and the counteroffer have not been disclosed.

Harcourt has a $4.8 million, 18-month contract to develop and grade the high school proficiency test and for the same work on tests taken by third and fifth graders. It also is working with the state to develop a test for eighth graders. The contract ends in June 2003.

In grading the high school proficiency tests earlier this year, the company mistakenly informed 736 high school sophomores and juniors they had failed. Harcourt initially suggested the students needed to correctly answer 42 of the 60 questions on the math test to pass. But then it corrected the error and said the students needed only 41 correct answers.

The Education Department said it has had problems with Harcourt since the contract started, including late delivery of tests and grammatical errors.

At a state Board of Education meeting last month, some members favored canceling the contract. But others expressed fear that would disrupt the testing schedule for students.