School testing company flunks again

Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2003 | 11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A national company, already fined $425,000 for mistakes in grading high school proficiency tests, has made another major blunder.

Harcourt Educational Measurement used the wrong table while grading tests given to third and fifth graders at an estimated 220 elementary schools in Nevada, resulting in the wrong test scores.

The state Education Department uncovered the goof-up Friday, Superintendent Jack McLaughlin said. Harcourt worked through the weekend to come up with correct scores for the students, he said.

"We're looking at assessing penalties for the faulty information," McLaughlin said.

Gary Waters, president of the state Board of Education, said this was a "very serious mistake" and the second one in two years. "It will be very difficult for that company to regain the confidence of the board," he said.

Waters said he may call a special meeting of the board, rather than waiting until the regular Sept. 26 meeting, to talk about the problem. "There are penalties and fines in the contract. We will have to determine the impact on the state and the (school) districts," he said.

He said he wants to hear from Harcourt officials. "They need to renew our faith in the testing process," said Waters.

The errors committed by the company are "unacceptable," Waters, of Las Vegas, said.

Harcourt used the wrong table to grade the tests, relying on a scoring system based on 37 questions, which is what the old test had, instead of the 41 questions in the new test, McLaughlin said. As a result students received higher grades than they should have.

The incorrect results were distributed to the school districts July 23, but now the districts are being asked to return the first report and rely on the second report that was mailed Tuesday.

McLaughlin said he intends to release the results statewide Aug. 29. It will show which schools are deficient under the new federal No Child Left Behind Act.

There were predictions during the Legislature that hundreds of schools may fall into the deficient category under the new federal measuring stick.

Because this is the first year that states report annual progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, McLaughlin said, "We want to take great care that we report it correctly."

One hundred year-round schools in Clark County were not affected by Harcourt's error because they did not take the test at the same time. Their results will be released in September or October, said Karlene McCormick-Lee, assistant superintendent of research and accountability for the Clark County School District.

Test scores for as many as 21,000 third and fifth grade students at about 80 nine-month schools in Clark County may have been reported incorrectly, McCormick-Lee said this morning.

About 20 of those schools have already sent scores home to parents, which means the district will have to bear the cost of a second round of mailings, McCormick-Lee said.

This is also the second year that school districts are required to provide transfers from failing schools to higher-achieving campuses for students who demand them. About 100 Clark County students were transferred last year from five campuses that had made the state's list of campuses "needing improvement" for at least two consecutive years.

Because of Harcourt's error, parents will not be notified until after Aug. 29 if their child's school has been labeled as deficient, McCormick-Lee said.

"Exercising school choice will not be an option before classes start Monday," McCormick-Lee said. "Unfortunately that's going to cause some difficulties for some of our families."

Jeff Galt, president and chief executive officer of the Texas-based company, said, "Harcourt's goals and the department's goals are completely aligned -- we both want to do what is best for Nevada's children and report results 100 percent correct.

Galt praised the Education Department for "helping identify the miscalculation."

The state Department of Education recently signed an $18 million extension on its contract with Harcourt to develop and score the high school proficiency tests and the ones given in elementary schools for four more years.

At that time McLaughlin said Harcourt had performed satisfactorily since the blunder in 2002 for which the company was fined $425,000. It had informed 736 high school sophomores and juniors they had failed the high school proficiency test given in April last year.

There was a team evaluating the performance of Harcourt and checking with school districts. "There have been no major deficiencies," McLaughlin said earlier this month. But he added there have been some minor mistakes such as delivering the tests to the wrong school.

Sun reporter

Emily Richmond contributed to this story.