Changes mean more would pass

COLUMBIA -- More schools in South Carolina would meet federal education goals under a scoring system given initial approval Monday by a state oversight panel.

A subcommittee of the Education Oversight Committee voted to align passing scores on the state's new standardized tests, taken for the first time last spring, with what the state considered passing on the 10-year-old Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests.

Some critics, however, suggested the state is just lowering its standards.

Results of the annual high-stakes tests, taken by third- through eighth-graders, are used to determine how schools are progressing toward state and national accountability goals.

The state's 1998 accountability law rated schools and districts based on students scoring at least "basic" -- the second of four published categories. It was defined as minimally prepared for the next grade. But the federal No Child Left Behind law of 2001, which allowed each state to set its own standards, judged schools only on the top two tiers.

"This is a confusing mess," said Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, as panel members debated how to make the results less confusing to parents and the community.

The 2008 law that revamped the testing system specified that scores on the new Palmetto Assessment of State Standards -- which assess students in science, reading and research, math, social studies, and writing -- will be given as "not met," "met" and "exemplary." Last week, the committee postponed deciding how to score the new test, after school groups asked for more study, fearing recommended scoring benchmarks would lead to fewer students passing.

The vote Monday would align "met" with "basic." For federal ratings, "met" would mean performing on grade level.

That means more schools will make "adequate yearly progress" under No Child Left Behind, said Jo Anne Anderson, the committee's executive director.

Critics say it will show artificial improvement.

The panel's recommendation will go before the full committee next week.

The law that ended PACT followed years of complaints that test results came in after the school year ended and provided no analysis on the topics in which students excelled or struggled. The computer-based PASS is designed to give teachers more timely and detailed information.

For years, state education officials have said South Carolina's standards rank among the nation's highest, so a "basic" score here could be a "proficient" elsewhere. In 2008, just 18 percent of South Carolina's elementary and middle schools met their federal education goals, even though students did better on tests. That was down from 39 percent in 2007.

The rigor of what's taught in classrooms and tested won't change, but the scoring system will, said panel member Jennifer "Buffy" Murphy, a former state teacher of the year.

What's changing is the "measuring stick we're using to get a more fair, accurate measure of what's going on in classrooms," she said.

But the executive director of an education watchdog group said the scoring change lowers the state's standards.

"This state can't stand up and look anybody in the eye claiming improvement based on the way we've graded the test," said Jon Butzon of the Charleston Education Network. "If we have a bunch more kids we tell the feds are scoring proficient, there's only two possibilities -- all of a sudden, we did a much better job of teaching kids to read, write and do arithmetic, or we lowered the standards by making the net bigger."