BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FRANKFORT -- The Kentucky Department of Education will likely use the same subcontractors that helped write this year's typo-ridden state assessment test to create next year's completely new exam.
As students continue to take this year's version of the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS) test, the Education Department is scrambling to create the new exam mandated by the General Assembly.
The department faces a major deadline. The Commonwealth Accountability and Testing System (CATS) test must be printed and delivered to schools by this time next year.
And that means the document must be created months before.
"We're in a very serious time crunch," spokeswoman Lisa Gross said. "But we didn't have very much time when KIRIS was created, either. We're kind of accustomed to it."
This year's test was written by WestEd of San Francisco and Data Recognition Corp. of Minneapolis. Both companies were originally hired by the state's major contractor, Advanced Systems. The state fired Advanced Systems last year after several scoring errors caused test scores to be re-evaluated.
The state then rehired WestEd and Data Recognition Corp. to finish the 1998 test. Both companies have been asked to help with the new test.
Critics say this is another recipe for disaster.
"This new group has to be involved with the design of the new test. There's not time to dig up a new group," Dick Innes, a Villa Hills parent and critic of the Kentucky Education Reform Act that created KIRIS. "They're already talking about a time crunch. "If we're stuck with the group that gave us this test with all the errors, that's not very good, is it?"
The Education Department's Ms. Gross said the number of errors found -- at least five -- amount to a "minor problem." There has been at least one minor problem, like a typo, every year the KIRIS test has been given.
"I wish we could have a perfect test. I wish we had a perfect world," Ms. Gross said. "But you almost have to expect the errors with such a large run of information."
Education Department officials said Friday that questions with errors or misprints would be thrown out and would not affect individual or school scores.
