By Jennifer D. Evans

Earlier this month, the state released results from tests administered last spring. Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) data, or how well districts performed in meeting academic benchmarks under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, were released, as well as the State Report Card, which includes information on achievement, demographics and discipline.

There was more hype than usual associated with the release of this data because they were the first performance outcomes against the higher academic standards implemented in the 2009-10 school year.

These more rigorous tests were given in April 2010. Five months later, individual student scores were sent to households, but aggregate data about how schools and districts fared was still not available. The results released in January, nine months later, were basically a pathology report and are generally useless in trying to correct the path on which many of these students are.

Officials say that this year's release of data was delayed because of the new standards. With these circumstances, a delay is understandable, but I don't think anyone is willing to accept an eight-month delay. Another excuse was that they were waiting on waivers from the federal government pertaining to the test results.

This is no reason to withhold important and available data from its residents. Withholding it for any amount of time prevents schools and districts from learning from the data and making adjustments for the following year.

School districts have been hesitant to report annual progress against school board goals because of the lack of TCAP and value-added data.

Therefore, no annual report has been released and another year goes by without a broad awareness among stakeholders of how the district performed against its goals. No urgency or significance is attached to these scores.

If we are going to subject our students to these tests and include the results in all teachers' evaluations, as the state plans to do next school year, then we must have this data in a more timely fashion. Technology surely is not a barrier in doing this. No, it is political will, and we must demand this information sooner and in a more helpful form.

Hopefully the new commissioner of education will sort through the politics and bureaucracy of the Department of Education and get these results to us while they are useful.