South Carolina § 59-18-320 - Review of field test; general administration of test; accommodations for students with disabilities; adoption of new standards.

§ 59-18-320. Review of field test; general administration of test; accommodations for students with disabilities; adoption of new standards.

(A) After the first statewide field test of the assessment program in each of the four academic areas, and after the field tests of the end of course assessments of high school credit courses, the Education Oversight Committee, established in Section 59-6-10, will review the state assessment program and the course assessments for alignment with the state standards, level of difficulty and validity, and for the ability to differentiate levels of achievement, and will make recommendations for needed changes, if any. The review will be provided to the State Board of Education, the State Department of Education, the Governor, the Senate Education Committee, and the House Education and Public Works Committee as soon as feasible after the field tests. The Department of Education will then report to the Education Oversight Committee no later than one month after receiving the reports on the changes made to the assessments to comply with the recommendations.

(B) After review and approval by the Education Oversight Committee, and pursuant to Section 59-18-325, the standards-based assessment of mathematics, English/language arts, social studies, and science will be administered for accountability purposes to all public school students in grades three through eight, to include those students as required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act and by Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. To reduce the number of days of testing, to the extent possible, field test items must be embedded with the annual assessments. To ensure that school districts maintain the high standard of accountability established in the Education Accountability Act, performance level results reported on school and district report cards must meet consistently high levels in all four core content areas. For students with documented disabilities, the assessments developed by the Department of Education shall include the appropriate modifications and accommodations with necessary supplemental devices as outlined in a student's Individualized Education Program and as stated in the Administrative Guidelines and Procedures for Testing Students with Documented Disabilities.

(C) After review and approval by the Education Oversight Committee, the end of course assessments of high school credit courses will be administered to all public school students as they complete each course.

(D) Any new standards and assessments required to be developed and adopted by the State Board of Education, through the Department of Education for use as an accountability measure, must be developed and adopted upon the advice and consent of the Education Oversight Committee.

HISTORY: 1998 Act No. 400, SECTION 2; 2006 Act No. 254, SECTION 4, eff March 24, 2006; 2008 Act No. 282, SECTION 1, eff June 5, 2008; 2017 Act No. 94 (H.3969), SECTION 7, eff June 10, 2017.

Effect of Amendment

The 2006 amendment rewrote subsection (B) to add provisions relating to standards-based annual assessments.

The 2008 amendment, in subsections (A) and (C), substituted "high school credit" for "benchmark"; rewrote subsection (B); and, in subsection (D), added "for use as an accountability measure,".

2017 Act No. 94, SECTION 7, amended (B), deleting obsolete provisions concerning the No Child Left Behind Act and deleting provisions concerning performance level results in various core subject areas.