EVERETT — Forty ACT exams taken by local students in June have finally turned up.
FedEx discovered the package Tuesday containing the missing answer sheets from the Mariner High School test site. The package had a tracking number, but could not be found for nearly 11 weeks.
“It was in one of their facilities between there and here,” ACT spokesman Ed Colby wrote in an email Thursday from the Iowa City-based test company. “It was immediately shipped back to us overnight.”
He did not know the location of the facility along the 1,900 miles or so between Everett and Iowa City.
The students who took the grueling three-hour test, plus the extra 40-minute writing portion, were informed Wednesday. This came a week after they were told the tests were missing, after a two-month wait for test scores.
ACT and SAT are the two major entrance examinations accepted by American colleges and universities. Scores are used as part of the admission process and to award scholarship money.
Colby said about 5,000 test centers administer the ACT on designated national test dates. Test answer packages are sent to the Iowa center for grading. He said most arrive within a week or two.
Though Mariner was the test site, it was not administered by the Mukilteo School District, where this year students will be able to take the ACT during the school day for free.
“We are relieved the tests were found and are now safely in the hands of ACT for processing,” district spokeswomen Diane Bradford said in an email.
Colby said the company is in the process of scoring the tests now.
He said all of the students whose tests went missing took the writing test, and those scores usually take around two weeks to be posted. The writing test must be scored by two different human graders. The multiple choice tests are scored by machine.
“But we are expediting this and will do our best to get them posted sooner than that,” he said.
Students were automatically registered to take the ACT test on Sept. 14 for free and will still be refunded their June test fees, he said.
“So, a happy resolution, as we had hoped,” Colby said.
Brad Greenfield’s daughter Lindsey was among the 40 whose tests were missing. Lindsey, a Kamiak High School senior, has been studying for a retake. She’d hoped to be able to review the June test results sooner for any missed answers in order to improve in those areas.
“She was happy they were found so she gets a score back from all of her hard work and effort,” Greenfield said. “I wish it hadn’t happened. I’m glad they found them. But finding them this late doesn’t necessarily help us out.”
Andrea Brown: abrown@herald net.com; 425-339-3443. Twitter:@reporterbrown.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
