The timing amounts to a technical violation, by the state Office of Education, of No Child Left Behind - a 2001 federal law that requires states to report each summer whether schools have met standardized test-score benchmarks.
A summer release is meant to ensure that parents at schools serving low-income children have enough time to shop for another school if they are eligible - that is, if their original school did not make "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) for two consecutive years.
But the state Office of Education needs several more weeks to crunch spring 2004 standardized test scores. Those scores are the main yardstick measuring whether schools adequately improved student performance in reading and math over 2003.
Utah and many other states missed the reporting deadline last year, and Utah will miss it again this year because, according to state Superintendent Patti Harrington, it takes so long to process, verify and report test scores.
State school officials say the delay shouldn't affect parents' right to switch schools at their own expense - a right that was available in Utah long before Congress passed No Child Left Behind.
"We're not going to prohibit them from transferring. They have that option anyway," Harrington said.
Still, the delay could leave many schools in a midyear scramble to shift teachers and find classroom space if parents clamor for transfers once they find out their school's AYP status.
"Space is going to be an issue," said Jim Madsen, the director of support services at Jordan School District, the state's largest. "I can't justify moving 15 kids into a class that's already overcrowded."
The district's five low-income schools - also known as Title I schools - did not make AYP in 2002-2003 and will have to offer a choice of schools this fall if they fell short again in 2003-2004.
Statewide, one-third of Utah's 800-plus schools missed their AYP targets last year. Of those, 70 are Title I schools subject to the federal sanctions.
Several state and district leaders said they hope the U.S. Department of Education will allow them to postpone the choice provision until 2005-2006.
Federal officials say it's too early to say how the department will deal with Utah's belated AYP reports, but one thing is clear: Title I schools will have to pay transfer-related transportation costs this coming school year if they did not make AYP in the previous two school years.
"We have been clear in telling every state and school district what the law's requirements are," said Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education.
Some school leaders question whether 2004 scores will even be valid given several problems with the test, including errors in test questions and answers, missing booklets and inconsistencies between students' and teachers' test booklets.
Jordan school officials have asked Harrington to strike 2004 AYP designations altogether, but that probably won't happen.
"This testing delay is something we highly regret," Harrington said. "We will own up to the problems of getting materials to schools. That said, I'd hate to tell parents that their child's test is null and void when they tried hard and did their very best."
Under the federal law, district superintendents have the authority to reverse negative AYP designations if they can prove errors in the numbers or calculations used to generate them.
Meantime, Harrington said the test-score turnaround time will improve as schools swap paper-and-pencil tests for online tests that can be scored much more quickly.
"It will be fully implemented as we can afford the software and hardware."
rlynn@sltrib.com
