Testing service botched scores teachers’ exams

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Mistakes in the scoring of an examination that Nevada and 17 other states use in licensing teachers caused more than 4,000 people who should have passed it to fail instead, the Educational Testing Service said Monday. The errors may have prevented many from getting full-time jobs as teachers in the last year.

It appears 119 people who took exam in Nevada were incorrectly told they had failed, said Chopin Kiang, administrator of the office of teacher education and licensing for the Nevada Department of Education.

What isn't known yet is whether people were turned down for teaching jobs in Nevada school districts because of the errors, Kiang said. The Clark County School District is still hiring the 1,800 teachers it will need for the coming school year, which begins Aug. 30. The errors occurred from January 2003 to April 2004. During that time, the test -- the Praxis Principles of Learning and Teaching for Grades 7 to 12 -- was given eight times to about 40,000 people.

Most of the individuals on Nevada's list were likely either looking for positions or already working in Clark and Washoe counties, Kiang said. The rural school districts typically don't hire new teachers until they've already passed all of the required exams, Kiang said. "The need is so big in Clark County they have to take people whenever they can," Kiang said.

The testing service began notifying state education departments last Friday afternoon that many of those scored as failing had in fact passed, and started calling the candidates themselves on Saturday.

"It's not only sad for Nevada; it's sad for 4,000 teachers in 17 other states," Kiang said. "Many people needed to pass the test to get jobs."

The company said it would reimburse the candidates the $115 it cost to take the test and would pay them for materials they used to prepare. The cost of test reimbursement alone will be close to $500,000.

The two-hour examination consists of 24 multiple-choice questions and some short-essay questions.

Tom Ewing, a spokesman for the Educational Testing Service, said the company had noticed lower scores than usual on two rounds of testing, but "we thought there were valid explanations for why the scores were lower."

"But when we investigated further," Ewing said, "we discovered that the short-essay questions were being graded more stringently than normal."

The testing service has a toll-free phone line (800-205-2626) for anyone who wants to seek more information.