JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A testing company has agreed to pay for Missouri students to take two tests this year after producing 2017 end-of-year exam results so unreliable that the state threw them out.
The Springfield News-Leader reports that end-of-year exams for high school students taking Algebra I and English II were flagged last year after problems with the statewide results raised concerns. The Joint Committee on Education discussed the unreliable scores Monday, asking state education officials about what went wrong and what remedial steps have been taken.
Education Department official Stacey Preis says that Questar Assessment Inc. "essentially discounted this year" after the testing mess-up last year. Agency documents show the discount was applied to the Questar contract in the form of a $750,000 "service credit."
Questar's contract with Missouri covers the current school year.