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State Testing Program

Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening
Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) is a formative assessment that is individually administered by the teacher. It measures preschoolers’ developing knowledge of important fundamentals in literacy skills: name writing ability, upper-case and lower-case alphabet recognition, letter sound and beginning sound production, print and word awareness, rhyme awareness, and nursery rhyme awareness. The assessment reflects skills that are predictive of future reading success and offers guidance to teachers for tailoring instruction to children’s specific needs.
 
Kindergarten Readiness Assessment
The KRA is a developmentally appropriate instrument that measures a child’s school readiness across multiple domains.  Understanding a child’s school readiness helps kindergarten teachers best meet the child’s needs, and it helps schools, families, communities and policy-makers know how best to support young children as they enter the K-12 environment.
 
The KRA determines each child’s readiness level from an evaluation of four domains: Social Foundations, Language/Literacy, Mathematics, and Physical Well-Being.  The KRA provides a snapshot.
 
SCREADY
The South Carolina College-and Career-Ready Assessments (SC READY) are statewide assessments in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics that meet all of the requirements of Acts 155 and 200, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), and the Assessments Peer Review guidance. 
 
All students in grades 3–8 are required to take the SC READY except those students with significant cognitive disabilities who qualify for the South Carolina Alternate Assessment (SC-Alt).
 
SCPASS
As originally developed, SCPASS is a statewide science and social studies assessment. In the 2019-20 school year, Proviso 1.94 of the General Appropriations Bill suspended testing of grade 8 science and grades 5 and 7 social studies. The 2019–20 provisos can be found in the 2019-20 General Appropriations Bill.

All students in grades 4 and 6 are required to take the SCPASS science except those who qualify for the South Carolina Alternate Assessment (SC-Alt).

All students, including students with disabilities, must participate in SCPASS testing. Students with disabilities may participate in SCPASS in the same manner as other students (i.e., without accommodations) or with accommodations. A student’s IEP or 504 Plan team determines how, not if, a student with disabilities participates in testing.
 
EOCEP
The End-of-Course Examination Program (EOCEP) is a statewide assessment program of end-of-course tests for gateway courses awarded units of credit in English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. The EOCEP encourages instruction in the specific standards for the courses, encourages student achievement, and documents the level of students’ mastery of the academic standards.  Gateway courses in English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies will be defined by the State Board of Education. EOCEP examination scores count 20 percent in the calculation of the student’s final grade in gateway courses. Defined gateway courses currently include Algebra 1, Intermediate Algebra, Biology 1, English 1, English 2, and United States History and the Constitution, or courses with other names and activity codes in which the academic standards corresponding to these subjects are taught.
 
To meet federal accountability requirements, the EOCEP in English/language arts, mathematics, and science must be administered to all public school students, including those students as required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) and by Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
 
To receive a South Carolina high school diploma, students are required to pass a high school credit course in science, and a high school credit course in United States history in which the state’s end of course examinations are administered. Currently, these courses are Biology 1 (science) and United States History and the Constitution (social studies).
 
ACCESS 
States must administer an English language proficiency assessment to limited English proficient students in grades K through 12 in order to comply with the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 20 USC 6301 et seq. (2002). For the 2020-21 school year, the assessment administered for this purpose will be ACCESS for ELLs® through the WIDA Consortium.
 
Alternate ACCESS for ELLs® is an assessment of English language proficiency for students in grades 1 through 12 who are classified as English language learners (ELLs) and have significant cognitive disabilities that prevent their meaningful participation in the ACCESS for ELLs® assessment. This assessment will also be available for those students who meet the criteria for an alternate assessment.

Who takes ACCESS? 
All students in grades K-12 who are determined to have limited English proficiency - based upon the completion of a Home Language Survey and the initial assessment of their English proficiency - must take ACCESS for ELLs® or Alternate ACCESS each spring. This includes those students whose parents have waived direct ESOL services.
 
Students with limited English proficiency must continue to take ACCESS until they meet the requirements for full English proficiency as established by the Office of Federal and State Accountability.
 
College Readiness Assessments
Section 59-18-325 of the Education Accountability Act (EAA) specifies that districts must offer grade eleven students the opportunity to take a college entrance test from a provider secured by the department. The Department has secured both the SAT® and the ACT®. These assessments are offered at no cost to the student. Students may use the results of these assessments to apply to college. Students are not required to take either the SAT® or ACT®.
For purposes of the testing program, grade eleven students are defined as students in their third year of high school after their initial enrollment in the ninth grade.
ACT
The ACT® is a college admissions test which includes multiple-choice tests in mathematics, science, English, and reading, plus a Writing test. The Writing test is not optional for the South Carolina testing program. Each of the ACT tests is timed. The total testing time is approximately 4.5 hours.
ACT provides indications of college readiness through ACT’s Benchmark scores. Students who score at or above the Benchmark in a given subject area have approximately a 50% chance of earning a B or better, and approximately a 75% chance of earning a C or better, in the corresponding college course or courses.
SAT 
The SAT® is a globally recognized college admission test that’s accepted at all U.S. colleges. The SAT reflects state standards, and educators can use the data from the test for instructional planning to improve college and career readiness. Redesigned in 2016, the SAT makes it easier for students to show their best work. The SAT Suite of Assessments scores open the door to over $235 million in college scholarships. Students who took the PSAT/NMSQT historically scored higher on the SAT than those who didn’t.
Ready to Work (R2W) and Essential Soft Skills (ESS) Assessments
Overview
Ready to Work (R2W) is a career readiness assessment administered to all eleventh grade students to determine student achievement in three key subjects: 
• Applied Mathematics
• Locating Information
• Reading for Information
R2W also includes the Essential Soft Skills (ESS) assessment that provides information about a student’s skills in the following five areas: 
• Cooperation with Others 
• Resolving Conflicts and Negotiation
• Solving Problems and Making Decisions 
• Observing Critically
• Taking Responsibility for Learning
The Essential Soft Skills assessment focuses on skills such as problem solving, goal-setting, decision-making, and self-direction, because these skills play a vital role in workplace success.  
Districts must administer the career readiness assessments for all 11th grade students based on their 9GR date. Eleventh grade students are students in the third year of high school after their initial enrollment in the ninth grade. Students in the 12th grade may retake one or more parts of the Career Readiness Assessments.
 
District Assessments
MAP Assessments

Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) are K – 12 interim assessments that measure growth, project proficiency on high-stakes tests, and inform how educators differentiate instruction, evaluate programs, and structure curriculum.
Computer adaptive MAP assessments reveal precisely which academic skills and concepts the student has acquired and what they’re ready to learn. MAP assessments are grade independent and adapt to each student’s instructional level. Every item on a MAP assessment is anchored to a vertically aligned equal interval scale, called the RIT scale for Rasch UnIT—a stable measurement, like inches on a ruler, that covers all grades.
And because the measurement is reliable and accurate, RIT scores serve as an essential data point in a student’s learning plan; educators can see their precise learning level and respond accordingly.