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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- School superintendents pushed back the release of a list showing which schools missed academic-growth targets because of a data-collection problem.
School leaders on Monday voted to ask the State Office of Education to go back and gather more complete data on special-education test scores used in the upcoming No Child Left Behind reports.
That will delay the release, originally set for Dec. 8, until possibly as long as Dec. 22.
No Child Left Behind requires states to bring all students up to grade level in reading and math by 2013-14.
In the meantime, states and schools must demonstrate progress toward that goal through annual improvements on standardized tests for students in grades three through eight and for one grade in high school.
However, officials worry that the measuring stick -- scores from 2002 -- are incomplete.
In 2002, special education students could take the test that best represented their ability level, even if the test was several grade levels below their age.
But in 2003, the law required all students to be tested at their grade level.
The state's initial calculation of 2002 data -- the baseline for future measurements -- did not include the scores of special education students who were not tested on grade levels.
That could set an artificially high 2002 baseline that many schools could not improve on this year, said Louise Moulding, the state Office of Education's director for evaluation and assessment.
The delay is to allow officials to find the 2002 data to provide a more realistic measuring stick.
The superintendents also postponed a vote on whether to fix a second data problem involving participation rates of students who took last spring's standardized tests.
The problem stemmed from difference in how districts recorded absences during the test. Some students were marked as absent or excused when they were present but just didn't finish the test.
School districts will decide next week whether to leave alone numbers on how many kids took tests, as the state recommends, or have each district go back and fix errors on its own.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
