Expect delays: New York will release statewide test scores later this year

Are more students across New York state able to read and do math on grade level? This year, it will take a little longer to find out.

The state doesn’t expect to release scores for this year’s reading and math tests until mid-September, officials announced Tuesday. That’s at least a month later than usual: In recent years, the scores have come out between late July and mid-August.

The delay is caused by the state’s switch from three-day tests to ones that take just two days. The move requires officials to take extra time to figure out how many questions students must answer correctly in order to earn a passing score — a process that must happen every time tests are retooled.

But teachers and schools will not have test data any later than normal, officials said. The raw data — which lets teachers know how their students did  — will still be released in June, and schools will receive information about how many students passed the test in August.

The lag time between when schools receive information and the public release allows state officials to double check the data and make sure it is correct, officials said.

“The only thing that you have to think about the shift is when we can report out statewide,” said Angélica Infante-Green, a deputy commissioner who oversees instruction (and who has made the news this week because she’s up for the top education job in Massachusetts). “That is the only thing that is different.”