While the Department of Education has released test scores required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, students in three other grades are waiting to see how they fared on the state's standardized test.

Last spring, all students in Grades 3 through 8, as well as 10th-graders, took the Hawai'i State Assessment, but when scores were released last month, they included only Grades 3, 5, 8 and 10 — the only grades required to be tested.

The state has been steadily increasing expectations in accordance with the law. In the last round of tests, significantly more students had to demonstrate proficiency in reading and math. Over the next nine years, more students from more grades will have to be proficient in more subjects, until ultimately all students will be expected to be proficient in all core subjects.

The DOE, which is ahead of most of the nation in implementing No Child Left Behind requirements, decided to give Grades 4, 6 and 7 a trial run before they are required to take the test next spring.

"We wanted to be ahead of schedule in case there were any problems with those grades so we could correct them," said Robert McClelland, director of the DOE's planning and evaluation office.

The high-stakes Hawai'i State Assessment is used to determine whether an adequate number of students are meeting proficiency in certain subjects, with the goal of all students in all grades being proficient in all core subjects by 2014.

The penalty for missing the targets ranges from allowing students to transfer out of the school to facing takeover by the state or an outside consultant.

Although the scores from last years' fourth-, sixth- and seventh-graders will not be counted under No Child Left Behind, schools and parents will still get to see the results.

Right now the DOE is deciding what formula will be used to determine whether students in those grades are proficient in reading and math.

Once the formula is approved by the Board of Education, the test company can start preparing score reports to go to the schools and parents in a few weeks.

Parents can expect more trial tests.

For instance, this year the DOE will field-test new science assessments in Grades 5, 7 and 11, even though science tests will not be required until next year, McClelland said.

"If there are any issues with the tests, we can correct them before the actual drop-dead date for No Child Left Behind," he said. "I think it's a good decision to do that."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.