In Ohio it was recently revealed that nearly 925 student’s tests were mismarked. The result of this mistake was that some of these students were denied graduation from high school. The State officials in Ohio apparently graded the tests correctly but Measurement Inc., a North Carolina company that helped create the test, mistakenly assigned failing labels to hundreds of passing grades. Local school officials acknowledged that such the errors have caused "emotional distress" and "it also plants a little bit of doubt in your mind." For the full text of this story–Download Tests Wrongly_Marked.doc
This story highlights in a big way that testing is fallible. There are numerous stories of simple arithmetic errors in adding up raw scores, errors in looking up standard scores based up on the wrong age norms, or tests being applied incorrectly. I have had tests applied to students without regard for the fact that the school psychologist had no idea that the child was not hearing any of the directions because he had a hearing loss, that the school failed to investigate as part of a case study. Tests which required a physical response were applied to a child who was physically challenged, and as a result the test publisher’s guidelines were not applicable to her. The most common mistake occurs with tests that have a subjective component (e.g. tests of written ability); one tester could give a good score for fairly modest work, and another would give little or no credit at all. The results of these errors are enormous. IEPs are skewed, children are placed in inappropriate settings and services are not provided.
I have frequently requested test protocols as part of a records review. The test protocols reveal the child’s answers and the grading process. Most districts will fight hard not to reveal this information based upon claims of privilege, copyright or that these records are "exclusive use" and therefore not student records. My review of the case law is that these arguments generally are without merit. The safest course is to have your private psychologist, if you have one, make the request for test protocols as part of his or her own evaluations. Given stories like what happened in Ohio, parents will at least be able to explain why they want the test protocols. The other protection for parents is to become more informed about the nature of the testing that has been used to raise thoughtful objections at or shortly following the meeting.