Kansas might withhold some annual school test data

Kansas officials have doubts about releasing many of the results from statewide math and reading tests taken by public school students earlier this year because of glitches in the computerized testing system and cyberattacks.

Acting Education Commissioner Brad Neuenswander and State Board of Education members said Wednesday that they believe statewide results will be valid, though the set of data would be smaller than in years past. But they said data for individual students, schools and school districts might not be solid enough to make public.

The Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation at the University of Kansas advised state school board members Tuesday that they should not release data for individual schools and districts.

This spring, the state did a pilot run of new tests from the University of Kansas center designed to align testing with new, multistate academic standards. The new computerized tests move away from multiple-choice questions and toward open-ended problems.

State school board member Ken Willard, a Hutchinson Republican, said it doesn’t seem right to release results that “put some good schools in an awkward situation simply because technology failed them.”

The State Board of Education expects to vote next month on how much to release. If the state board seeks to withhold data, the U.S. Department of Education must sign off.

This story was originally published June 11, 2014 at 8:53 PM with the headline "Kansas might withhold some annual school test data."