The Wyoming Department of Education announced another error in results reported from the 2008 Proficiency Assessment for Wyoming Students.

Writing responses for 37 students in nine school districts were incorrectly scored for the 2008 PAWS test. The error is the latest in a series of mistakes the Department of Education and testing vendor Pearson have identified.

Pearson has recalculated the assessments for the 37 affected students. The company's $13.9 million contract with the state to oversee the testing expires in October.

The corrected scores may change Adequate Yearly Progress determinations for school districts Campbell 1, Carbon 2, Converse 1, Fremont 1, Natrona 1, Platte 1, Platte 2 and Weston 7.

The error has been traced to a single scorer from Pearson, who scored students a 'no response' on writing prompts students had actually responded to.

Joe Simpson, Deputy State Superintendent of Public Instruction, said all writing tests showing a no response on one or both prompts were reviewed. In total, 88,000 assessments were double-checked.

The Department of Education is working with Pearson to avoid future scoring errors, including having backup readers and a set protocol for low student scores, Simpson said.

"We are certainly working with our vendor, Pearson, to make sure those things don't occur," Simpson said.

David Barker, superintendent of Platte County School District 2, said the writing results error probably won't have an impact on the district's AYP results.

"I haven't had a chance to really dig into it and look at it," Barker said. "This error is not really going to affect us a lot."

Barker said the recent errors to PAWS results and reports ask the question of what is being put in place to prevent future mistakes.

"It's frustrating, I guess, to have these kinds of things happen," he said. "You begin to question some things."

At the same time, it's good the Department of Education caught the recent errors, said Stuart Nelson, superintendent of Platte County School District 1.

Nelson said assessment results are often rushed out to districts since the public wants to see them as soon as possible, which opens the door for errors.

"Sometimes that doesn't allow us to go back and get those checks and balances we need," Nelson said. "It's really nice that the department is looking close enough, to make sure we are finding them. I really applaud them."

In July, Pearson alerted the Wyoming Department of Education to an error the state's former testing vendor made on Adequate Yearly Progress calculations for 2007.

Once the error was corrected, test scores for three schools and about 200 students were changed and, as a result, they met key AYP benchmarks.

Just last week, the department also found the expository and expressive writing scores were switched on reports from the 2008 PAWS. On the inaccurate reports, a student's expository score was actually his expressive score.

Corrected reports for both the writing reports error and the writing scoring error are being mailed out as soon as possible.

Pearson purchased Harcourt Assessments in May 2007.

Before the acquisition, state officials reported problems with the delivery of assessment results, how tests were scored, the time needed to complete the tests, and computer glitches during testing in recent years.

Reach education reporter Jasa Santos at (307) 266-0593 or at Jasa.Santos@trib.com