ST. PAUL -- Results from Minnesota's science test won't be released next week as planned due to an error by the Bloomington-based company hired to score the exams.
Minnesota Department of Education officials discovered Pearson incorrectly scored two questions on the fifth- and eighth-grade science tests while doing quality assurance checks on the results, said Dirk Mattson, the department's director of research and assessment.
The results now will be released the week of July 26.
"I'm always concerned, whether it's my staff or someone else's staff, when there are issues with data. The thing I'm pleased with ... is my staff discovered the issue," Mattson said. "We want and are getting it rectified."
Pearson officials could not be reached for comment Friday. In a letter sent to school district assessment coordinators on Thursday, the company said it "sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience this has caused."
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Pearson has held virtually all of Minnesota's testing contracts since 2007. The state paid Pearson about $25 million during the 2009-10 school year for its services.
Nearly 180,000 students -- in grades five, eight and high school -- took the interactive, online science exam this year. The state first administered the test in 2008.
This isn't the first time Pearson has been blamed for a scoring error.
In April 2006, the company was sued for an error that affected the SAT scores of more than 5,000 college-bound students.
In that case, 4,411 students got incorrectly low scores and more than 600 had better results than they deserved on tests taken Oct. 8, 2005. The company settled in late 2007 for $2.85 million.
And in 2000, more than 47,000 students received incorrect math scores on Minnesota's Basic Standards Test due to mistakes by Pearson; 8,000 were erroneously told they had failed. In some cases, students missed out on graduation ceremonies.
Pearson was sued and in 2002 agreed to a settlement, which provided $4.5 million in attorneys' fees and expenses and up to $7 million for the students.
