PASS Standardized Testing Program Gets Under Way for Students in Grades 3-8
May 14, 2009COLUMBIA, SC – May 8, 2009 – Public school students in grades three through eight will take part in South Carolina’s annual standardized testing program beginning Tuesday, May 12 – but they won’t be answering PACT questions this time around.
The state’s venerable Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests ended a 10-year run last spring, replaced by the new PASS (Palmetto Assessment of State Standards) that will have a faster turnaround time for scores in the future and will yield more detailed information on individual students.
PASS assessment actually made its debut with writing tests administered in mid-March. The writing test for each grade level included
multiple-choice items and one extended-response item. The tests that get under way May 12 will have multiple-choice items only.
All grade 3-8 students will take the English Language Arts (reading and research) tests next Tuesday, followed by mathematics on Wednesday, May 13. Students in grades 4 and 7 will have science testing on Thursday, May 14. Those in grades 3, 5, 6 and 8 will take either science or social studies tests that day ((with about half of the students in each of those grades taking each test). Social studies testing for grades 4 and 7 is scheduled for Friday, May 15. Scannable answer documents will be used for all PASS tests (all subjects and grade levels).
For each PASS test, three overall performance levels will be reported:
● Exemplary – the student demonstrated exemplary performance in meeting the grade level standard.
● Met – the student met the grade level standard.
● Not Met – the student did not meet the grade level standard.
PASS will be aligned to the state’s academic standards, with standard setting taking place this summer. This will cause a one-time delay for the spring test results, which will not be available until the fall of 2009. Beginning in 2010, PASS results will be available by June 16 each
year.
PASS scores will be used for school and school district accountability purposes (report cards) beginning with the 2008-09 school year. The
assessment results will also be used for federal accountability purposes (No Child Left Behind).