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Superintendent Ramon Cortines told the LA Unified board today that he believes the state will delay using statewide computerized test results for any official measures.

“The word on the street is that they’re looking favorably that this year’s test will not count,” he said during a discussion of the the district’s use of computers for testing.

The decision rests with the State Board of Education, which is meeting tomorrow and Thursday in Sacramento. Cortines was among many superintendents and local officials who have lobbied the board to postpone using the test scores to measure schools and student progress because of technical problems students encountered with district and state hardware. 

For that reason, he told the board, “It shouldn’t be put on the backs of students, teachers and school administrators because we were not prepared.”

Cynthia Lim, the district’s top official for data and accountability, told the board that a Feb. 19 “dress rehearsal” of the computerized tests was fraught with problems, including access to servers and slow speed of data delivery.

“There was a lot of frustration,” she said, but adding that many of the problems have been addressed.