Test-score omission a puzzle

Many in the Lowell and Rosslyn Heights neighborhoods are still reeling from having the Salt Lake City Board of Education vote to close their schools.

So when parents in the communities learned this week test scores from the two schools were omitted from the state's comprehensive test results on the Web, many cried foul.

The Utah State Office of Education lists results from the core curriculum test on its Web site for every school and district in the state. But the two in Salt Lake City School District slated for closure at the end of this school year were among a handful of schools left off the list.

The schools, district office and this newspaper received numerous phone calls and inquiries as to why.

"To us it feels like one more in a series of slights," said Lowell's School Community Council Chair Heather Bennett. She said she and a number of other community members are awaiting an explanation.

Did someone erroneously think the schools had already been closed and therefore leave them out?

Was it done purposefully to hide the school's test scores from the public?

Officials at the Utah State Office of Education and the Salt Lake City School District say none of the above.

"These things happen. They are moving massive amounts of data," district testing director Joan Reynolds said. "I think it's a total coincidence, but I think the state needs to look and see how this happened."

District assistant superintendent Charles Hausman said he doesn't think the two schools were targeted by the state. After looking closely at why Lowell and Rosslyn may have been left out, district staff noticed Horizonte and a few school programs were also missing. At one point, Granite School District's Beehive Elementary School was also missing from the state's Web site.

"There's no reason to suspect this would be intentional on their part," Hausman said.

State Office of Education officials say part of the reason for the mix-up is probably just the result of confusing code entries. Last year federal regulations required schools to use a different, more complex process for submitting their core curriculum test scores and codes.

"We suspect it may be because of the finance code numbers," said State Office of Education spokesman Mark Peterson.

State testing coordinator Louise Moulding says her office is working to get the scores posted on the Internet as quickly as possible and trying to find out what happened.

"It's our responsibility to post accurate data," she said. "We clearly need to put in greater checks."

Reynolds said testing specialists from the district and the state will meet Friday to look over the data and find all errors.

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E-MAIL: ehayes@desnews.com