State rushes to fix two errors on MCAS tests
A Lawrence elementary school in the middle of MCAS testing discovered that a page of questions was missing from some fourth-grade English testing booklets yesterday, sending the state scrambling to fix the second mistake found on the tests this week.
The state told schools to give students a new test booklet to replace those with missing pages, amounting to 150 booklets statewide.
On Tuesday, Measured Progress, the New Hampshire testing company that publishes the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams, had told the state there were errors in 1,500 testing booklets sent out for this week's 10th-grade English tests. Students were supposed to read a short passage and answer questions, but several of the questions had nothing to do with the text.
The errors, which affected a small percentage of the more than 70,000 students in each grade, occurred in printing and will not affect students' scores, but such mistakes are unacceptable, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education said.
School administrators, who said the errors briefly interrupted testing, wondered how the mistakes happened in the first place. Testing watchdog groups said the errors raise worrisome questions about how well the state oversees the testing program as the Department of Education plans to add more tests, including new exams in high school science. Errors in testing have become an increasing concern since states began requiring additional tests to meet federal requirements.
''This is serious stuff," said Susan Szachowicz, principal of Brockton High School, where nearly 1,000 students took the MCAS yesterday. ''How do you not catch that?"
State education officials proofread the final test booklets before they were shipped to the printer, but not before they went to the schools, said Heidi B. Perlman, a state Department of Education spokesman. She said the department will talk to Measured Progress about the consequences of the errors when testing is finished. In the past, the department has negotiated a lower price for the tests when errors occurred.
''Our priority right now is to fix this problem," Perlman said.
This is the first year that Measured Progress is handling the MCAS. Last year, the company, based in Dover, N.H., won the $118 million, five-year contract to publish the tests. Company spokeswoman Pat Ross would not comment yesterday, saying their contract with the Department of Education prohibited them from speaking about the MCAS.
The errors will not affect students, Perlman said. She said the error on the 10th-grade test occurred in a reading passage that was part of a field-test question given to students to see if it is clear enough to include on a future test. The students' answers would not have counted toward their scores. The fourth-grade errors were caught before they could hurt students' scores, she said.
But the errors caused disruptions, as teachers and principals scoured classrooms to see who had the faulty booklets, school officials said.
In Lawrence, officials at the Edward F. Parthum School, who learned of the problem in the fourth-grade booklet from a student, said they had replacement booklets for the students within minutes.
Brockton schools halted testing on the booklet for 10th-graders for several minutes yesterday until the state told students they could ignore that question.
Medford school officials found a handful of students with the faulty booklets and will make sure their scores are not affected.
''We obviously have to watch the results," said Superintendent Roy E. Belson of Medford.
School officials said the state fixed the problem quickly and gave them a toll-free number to call with questions. Newton North High School officials learned of the 10th-grade error early enough that they were able to remove the erroneous test booklets before students got to school.
''It was not a big to-do," said Assistant Principal Anthony Principe.
But it's something schools would rather avoid at a nerve-racking time, officials said. Schools plan for months to make sure proctors are in place, public address systems are silenced, and No. 2 pencils are sharpened and ready.
''You kind of go, 'Oh, goodness, why is this happening to us?'" said Lynn Catarius, director of assessment and accountability at Lawrence schools. ''But luckily we caught it."
The errors raise questions about the quality of oversight over test production, others say.
''Who knows what other questions are not correct?" said Catherine A. Boudreau, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which has long argued that the MCAS alone should not be a graduation requirement.
Currently, students must pass the English and math 10th-grade MCAS to earn a diploma and are allowed several chances to pass before they graduate; the state plans to phase in science tests over the next several years.
A Boston College study two years ago found that testing errors are increasingly common as high-stakes testing gains prominence in schools. More states are demanding faster turnaround in publishing test booklets and getting students their scores, said Walter Haney, an education professor at BC and a testing researcher who testified before the Legislature earlier this month about the perils of high-stakes testing.
''It's increasingly common," Haney said of errors in tests. ''I think this is absolutely crystal-clear evidence of why the state's policy of basing high-stakes decisions on MCAS results is fundamentally misguided."
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com. 