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Last year's SAGE scores took more than six months to reach parents, but educators are hoping to beat that record this summer.
Because SAGE is computer- based, individual student scores were calculated immediately after the tests were completed. And state education managers say they expect those reports to be made available to parents in the coming weeks.
"It's sort of up to every individual school," said Jo Ellen Shaeffer, assessment director for the State Office of Education. "The opportunity is there for them to have those immediate results as soon as the student finished testing this year."
In Salt Lake City School District, several schools were gearing up Monday to release SAGE report cards to parents.
"Hopefully, we can get them all together and send them out this week," said Clayton Middle School Principal Linda Richins, whose school completed its testing May 22.
Students took the computer- based adaptive SAGE test for the first time last spring, but delays related to implementing a new system pushed the release of individual student reports back until November and, in some cases, December.
The wait for test scores allowed parents to compare a child's performance to their peers across the state, but this year's statewide averages will not be available until September, Shaeffer said.
That means parents won't have to wait as long for an individual child's report cards, but the analysis of the scores may appear incomplete when they arrive. Comparisons to their classmates will still be on the reports.
"It will have their students' scores, and that's what the goal was," Shaeffer said.
Hillside Middle School Principal Jane Berntson said holding scores until December frustrated parents last year. She said the decision was made to release student data more quickly, even if state-level comparisons are unavailable.
"What we are planning to do is make two copies," Berntson said. One report card will be filed at the school, the other will be mailed home — probably at the first of next week.
Canyons School District plans to make student reports available online June 17, district spokesman Jeff Haney said. A letter was also sent home last week to Canyons parents informing them how to request paper copies of their child's scores.
"We have been proactive in getting the word to our parents," Haney said.
Granite School District also will make scores available online this summer, spokesman Ben Horsley said, but a specific release date has not yet been set.
Student scores are available, Horsley said, and parents can contact their child's teacher or principal directly if a report is needed before the district can make them available online.
But scores will be delayed in Jordan School District, which operates several year-round elementary schools, according to spokesman Steve Dunham.
Jordan School District students will continue taking SAGE tests until June 21, with a rollout of scores expected after that testing window closes.
"We are further back because we have those year-round schools," Dunham said. "We will have those [scores] to parents before school resumes this fall."
Shaeffer said the Utah State Office of Education has not yet received SAGE scores from the districts. But early reports suggest scores will have improved since last year, when most students fell short of grade-level expectations in math, English and science.
"Anecdotally, people are saying they're seeing a little bit higher scores," Shaeffer said.
Dunham said the early results for Jordan School District are promising, but they are subject to change as year-round schools finish testing.
"As we look at those numbers, they've increased tremendously," he said.