Annual assessment test died last week

Editor

jevans@pickenssentinel.com

STATE - When students come back to the classroom in the fall, the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test won't be coming back with them.

A bill that replaces the annual PACT test for third through eighth graders with a new test went into law without Gov. Mark Sanford's signature last week.

The test has been a part of SC classrooms since 1998, when it was introduced as part of the Education Accountability Act.

"These changes are what parents and teachers have been asking for," said State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex in a SC Department of Education press release.

"They make our accountability system more practical for educators, more effective for schools and more useful to parents."

Rex has long pushed for changes in the state's assessment testing, stating that the state relies too much on end-of-the-year testing that doesn't help teachers or students improve performance.

The new test will be administered in 2009, with an essay portion administered in March.

Test results will come back to districts in May. PACT scores did not return to districts until late July.

Changes to the law come after recommendations from two statewide testing and accountability task forces Rex appointed in 2007. The task forces included representatives from local districts, teacher and administrator organizations, the General Assembly and the Education Oversight Committee, among others, the release said.

In addition to the PACT replacement, the new law also stipulates a review every five years of the state's school accountability system to ensure it is working effectively: eliminates extensive teacher paperwork requirements and encourages formative assessments in English, language arts and mathematics.

Those assessments will allow teachers to receive immediate feedback on students' strengths and weaknesses to allow them to customize instruction, the release said.

Superintendent Lee D'Andrea said she was "extremely excited that the new EAA reform bill was passed."

"We have been advocating for several years, parents and teachers that the state need a new instrument for assessing student learning with solid diagnostic information," D'Andrea said.

Receiving test scores earlier gives district officials "solid accurate information (with which) to make decisions before the school year begins," D'Andrea said.

"Programmatically and individual student-wise," she said. "Which is a good thing."

As legislators begin formulating the replacement test, the School District of Pickens County will have a seat at the table, D'Andrea said.

"Usually the State Department has task forces," she said. "We will certainly be nominating teachers to be on those task forces as the tests are developed."

D'Andrea said the PACT correlated well to state education stands

"It's the information on the students' strengths and needs that was so deficient," she said.