Some school districts say their test scores weren't tabulated properly. They have until 5 p.m. Monday to petition the state to take another look at their data.
Pennsylvania education officials are delaying the release of performance scores for all 3,200 traditional, charter, cyber and technical schools following complaints about technical errors that resulted in many student test results not being properly counted.
Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller said Friday the performance scores would be released four days late, on Oct. 4, instead of Monday.
Even then, some performance scores are likely to be incomplete.
Eller said schools have until 5 p.m. Monday to let the department know if they would like to suppress questionable data until corrections are made. Until then, Eller said the agency will compute a rating using available data and issue a revised rating later.
The new School Performance Profiles replace the previous standard known as AYP, or adequate yearly progress, which was based solely on student math and reading scores. Pennsylvania is no longer required to use that benchmark since receiving a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Forty percent of the score comes from exam results, while another 40 percent is based on how much progress students make in a given year. Exams include the Pennsylvania System of Student Assessment and high school Keystone tests in English, math and science.
Schools are now judged on data including attendance, participation in standardized testing, graduation rates and closing the achievement gap. Ratings will be updated annually.
The problem involves the Keystone tests, which were given for the first time statewide in 2012-13.
On each Keystone exam, there was a bubble students could fill in to indicate if it was an end-of-course exam. If the student filled in the bubble, then the exam counted for a measure of student growth known as the Pennsylvania Value Added Assessment System, or PVAAS.
However, in some districts, some students apparently did not fill in the bubble, and districts noticed that many fewer tests had counted toward the value-added information than they expected.
The information counts for up to 40 percent of the school's score on the performance profiles and will help determine teacher evaluations statewide for the first time this school year.
School officials first noticed the discrepancies when the test results were released to them last week, Eller said.