Parents will have to wait a little longer to see how their children stacked up against the rest of the Minnesota on this year’s student achievement tests.

The state Department of Education said Monday that it was delaying until Thursday the release of results of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, or MCAs, because its “data comparison and validation” was taking longer than expected.

The department had planned to give the media a sneak peek at the scores Monday and release them to the public Tuesday. School districts already have their MCA results, and some districts have released those scores to parents.

Each spring, students from third grade to high school take proficiency tests in math, reading and science. Their scores are used as accountability measures for school performance and teacher evaluations.

This is the first year the MCAs were taken almost exclusively online, and problems plagued the testing system provided by international assessment giant Pearson.

Educators complained that the system was slow and filled with glitches, and Education Commission Brenda Cassellius halted testing twice because of computer crashes, cyber attacks or other problems.

Minnesota was not alone; several other states served by Pearson experienced online testing problems, too.

Also Thursday, Minnesota school officials plan to release a nonprofit consultant’s analysis of how computer glitches might have affected student scores.

After problems with online testing provided by the American Institutes for Research in 2013, the consultant, the Human Resources Research Organization, conducted a similar review and found minimal impact.

Many educators raised concerns that the recent problems would result in lower scores, and state legislators this year allowed districts to set aside unreliable scores.

But federal law requires Minnesota to test students each year and report proficiency rates. Failure to do so can result in financial penalties.

Christopher Magan can be reached at 651-228-5557. Follow him at twitter.com/chris_magan.