Testing group inaccurately scores thousands of exams for Charleston first-graders

Thousands of Charleston County first-graders received inaccurate literacy test results earlier this fall after a not-for-profit group botched the exams' scoring.

Students who fell on the low end of the scoring scale tended to have results that were underestimated, while those at the highest end of the scale were overestimated. Those in the middle weren't accurate, either, but the errors weren't as great, officials said.

The mistakes are worth noting because the scores were one of the key factors used to determine which students need to be in First Grade Academies, one of the district's flagship programs to improve literacy for its weakest readers.

District leaders said the miscalculations didn't affect the integrity of the First Grade Academies, and all first-graders' scores have been corrected. They said the bigger headache fell on administrators who had to correct students' files.

"It made a lot more work for our office, and caused some confusion for a while at the school level until we were able to show them the spreadsheets," said Terri Nichols, the district's associate superintendent for elementary schools.

The inaccurate scores were on the Measures of Academic Progress for Primary Grades, a test used by 2,390 school districts nationally, said Jean Fleming, director of marketing for Northwest Evaluation Association, which developed the MAP assessment.

The MAP for Primary Grades includes three kinds of test, and the scoring problem occurred only on one of those tests, Fleming said. All of the districts that use the exam don't necessarily use that test, and Fleming said she wasn't able to give an estimate on the number of students affected by the scoring errors.

The test is used in Charleston for diagnostic purposes, specifically helping teachers figure out students' strengths and weaknesses. The results aren't used in state or federal accountability ratings.

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