Maryland education officials said they will wait until late October to release detailed data on how many seniors in each county and school risk not graduating in June because they have not passed the High School Assessments.
The delay pushes back the time when the state school board can take up the issue of whether to adjust the test policy for the Class of 2009, the first graduating class that is being required to pass exams to graduate.
The data, which was expected this month, is not ready, state officials said, because local school districts have not given the state complete files on each student in the class and where he or she stands academically.
One school system, which the state would not identify, has "half a million errors in their files," said Leslie Wilson, who is in charge of testing programs at the state level.
Data showing a large percentage of students in a given school or district falling behind on the tests could add fuel to arguments that implementing the graduation requirement should be pushed back. The state is being cautious about releasing the data to make sure it doesn't include students who weren't on track to graduate anyway, because those cases might make the impact of the tests seem greater than it is.
"That is the reason you want accurate data, because it is an important year," said Nancy S. Grasmick, state superintendent of schools. "We are very strict about ensuring that information is correct before it is released."
Usually, the state has released statistics on how many students in each school, county and state passed the exams. Last year, they released the pass rates for the Class of 2009 statewide and in each county. The Sun collected the data for each school from city and county school systems. It was published in August and showed that minorities, special education students and students learning English as a second language had the highest failure rates. The results prompted Grasmick to propose that students be given the opportunity to do a project in any subject in which they had failed the test twice if they were otherwise on track to graduate.
At least a couple of school board members have expressed reservations about the tests and said publicly that they want a full discussion about whether to go forward with the requirement for this year's senior class. Because the state board will not see all of the data until October, it is unlikely the board would take any action until December. The board traditionally does not meet in November.
