PORT ST. LUCIE — Two months ago, Port St. Lucie Elementary’s writing tests went missing, only no one knew it.

The tests — about 100 of them — languished in the district offices, improperly packaged and grouped with other test materials.

School officials learned of the mistake Thursday when the state released the results of the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and nothing showed up for Port St. Lucie Elementary.

After a frantic 24-hour search and several email exchanges with the state Department of Education, school officials realized today the mistake was theirs, that the tests had never left the district offices. They were found, wrongly placed in a “Scholastic” box, today.

Superintendent Michael Lannon called the error “regrettable and embarrassing,” but said he had every reason to believe the tests would be scored and counted in the district’s average.

“If we don’t have those scores within a couple weeks I’ll be surprised,” he said.

Glenn Rustay, principal of A-rated Port St. Lucie Elementary, said he had already spoken to a couple of parents about the missing scores. An automated phone message should go out to all parents tonight, he said.

This is not the first time that standardized tests have gone missing somewhere between the test-taking and the test-scoring, said Kelsey Lehtomaa, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

While uncommon, Lehtomaa said there are security measures in place to ensure that the tests have not been tampered with and that, if they haven’t been, it is likely they will be counted.

School officials plan to review their own security measures and procedures in light of the incident, Lannon said.

Rustay, who was at his computer before 6 a.m. Thursday to see the scores, said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the scores, when they do arrive, will be good.

“The kids worked very hard, the teachers worked very hard,” he said.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Fort Pierce, Hutchinson Island, Port St. Lucie, Schools, St. Lucie County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.