Roughly 14 percent of Watertown High School Regents examinations have been scored incorrectly, which could affect the academic standing of some students.

District officials learned a week and a half ago of a discrepancy between the tabulated scores from teachers and administrators and the scores from a scanner.

“The implications are classes that must be repeated, summer school and even graduation,” Superintendent Terry N. Fralick said Tuesday at a Board of Education meeting. “We’re looking at this very carefully — there are some students who may have thought they passed the Regents who actually failed.”

Of the 2,071 examinations that were administered at the high school, 286 had different results when they were scanned by teachers than by a machine. School Principal Lloyd L. Peck informed Mr. Fralick about the difference in scores. Mr. Peck, with the assistance of Assistant Principal Leslie E. Atkinson and some teachers, reviewed all of the exams, Mr. Fralick said.

There is no evidence that scores were changed on purpose.

Rather, the issue seems to be with tabulation. The errors didn’t come from scoring or correcting, but tabulating the answers from columns on the tests. There is a new scanning sheet this year that is different than in the past and has made things a little bit more difficult, Assistant Superintendent Mary-Margaret Zehr said.

Some of the different scores were higher than what the students actually achieved — others were lower.

“There’s not a pattern — it’s kind of all over the spectrums in all content areas,” Mr. Fralick said. “We’ve written letters to parents and records will be adjusted for correct scores.”

Letters were sent out to parents notifying them that their student was affected and their Regents score would change. The records, course schedules and student transcripts will now be adjusted for the correct scores, and students will be advised by guidance counselors about the implications of the score change and whether they went from passing to failing, or vice versa.

“I suspect you’re going to get some phone calls from some angry folks,” Board of Education member Patrick J. Powers said. “I have to say, rightly so.”

Mr. Fralick, Mr. Peck and Mrs. Zehr will likely be sitting down in the future with each teacher who signed off on the Regents examinations that were scored incorrectly. There will be some review courses offered for any affected students who may need to retake one of the tests.

“We’re working through it,” Mr. Fralick said. “We’re trying to ameliorate the situation as much as possible.”

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer