A fluke in scoring means more than 4,000 Illinois 5th graders who flunked the state reading test in the spring may end up passing after all.

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Pupils needed at least a 156 to pass the test but when the results were computed it was impossible to get a 156, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Education officials say a mathematical oddity in the scoring process, exacerbated by a security breach on the reading test, allowed pupils to score only above or below the cutoff. They're recommending the passing score be lowered to 155, a move that could mean the difference between passing and failing for 4,342 children across Illinois, the newspaper said.

In addition, 29 schools that failed federal standards because too few pupils passed the test would win a reprieve, said Becky McCabe, head of testing for the Illinois State Board of Education.

A reading passage was inadvertently used in teacher training workshops. When that same passage appeared on the test taken by pupils, state officials had to discard the answers, which threw off the process used to determine scores.