1. (A) All students entering the eleventh grade for the first time in school year 2014-2015 and subsequent years must be administered a college and career readiness assessment as required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act and by Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and that is from a provider secured by the department. In addition, all students entering the eleventh grade for the first time in school year 2014-2015 and subsequent years must be administered a WorkKeys assessment. The results of the assessments must be provided to each student, their respective schools, and to the State to:

   1. (1) assist students, parents, teachers, and guidance counselors in developing individual graduation plans and in selecting courses aligned with each student's future ambitions;
   2. (2) promote South Carolina's Work Ready Communities initiative; and
   3. (3) meet federal and state accountability requirements.
2. (B) Students subsequently may use the results of these assessments to apply to college or to enter careers. The results must be added as part of each student's permanent record and maintained at the department for at least ten years. The purpose of the results is to provide instructional information to assist students, parents, and teachers to plan for each student's course selection. This course selection might include remediation courses, dual-enrollment courses, advanced placement courses, internships, or other options during the remaining semesters in high school.

3. (C)

   1. (1) To maintain a comprehensive and cohesive assessment system that signals a student's preparedness for the next educational level and ultimately culminates in a clear indication of a student's preparedness for postsecondary success in a college or career and to satisfy federal and state accountability purposes, the Executive Director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority, with the advice and consent of the special assessment panel, shall direct the procurement of a summative assessment system for the 2014-2015 school year, and subsequent years as provided in item (3). The procurement must be completed before September 30, 2014. The summative assessment must be administered to all students in grades three through eight, and if funds are available, administered to students in grades nine and ten. The summative assessment must assess students in English/language arts and mathematics, including those students as required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and by Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. For purposes of this subsection, "English/language arts" includes English, reading, and writing skills as required by existing state standards. The assessment must be a rigorous, achievement assessment that measures student mastery of the state standards, that provides timely reporting of results to educators, parents, and students, and that measures each student's progress toward college and career readiness. Therefore, the assessment or assessments must meet all of the following minimum requirements:

      1. (a) compares performance of students in South Carolina to other students' performance on comparable standards in other states with the ability to link the scales of the South Carolina assessment to the scales from other assessments measuring those comparable standards;
      2. (b) be a vertically scaled, benchmarked, standards-based system of summative assessments;
      3. (c) measures a student's preparedness for the next level of their educational matriculation and individual student performance against the state standards in English/language arts, reading, writing, and mathematics and student growth;
      4. (d) documents student progress toward national college and career readiness benchmarks derived from empirical research and state standards;
      5. (e) establishes at least four student achievement levels;
      6. (f) includes various test questions including, but not limited to, multiple choice, constructed response, and selected response, that require students to demonstrate their understanding of the content;
      7. (g) be administered to students in a paper-based format in 2014-2015, in either a paper-based form or computer-based format in 2015-2016, and to all students in a computer-based format by school year 2016-2017; and
      8. (h) assists school districts and schools in aligning assessment, curriculum, and instruction.
   2. (2) Additionally, the Executive Director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority, with the advice and consent of the special assessment panel, also must direct the procurement of a college and career readiness assessment that meets the requirements of subsection (A). The procurement must be completed before September 30, 2014. In addition to WorkKeys, the assessment must be administered to all students entering the eleventh grade for the first time in the 2014-2015 school year.
   3. (3) In school years 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017, the department must administer the assessments procured by the State Fiscal Accountability Authority in English/language arts and mathematics in grades three through eight, and if funds are available, in grades nine and ten. The department also must administer the state-developed and adopted assessments in science and social studies to all students in grades four through eight, and the college readiness assessment and WorkKeys assessment to all students in grade eleven. If the Education Oversight Committee approves of the assessments pursuant to Section 59-18-320 after the 2016-2017 assessment, the assessments also may be administered in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. Formative assessments must continue to be adopted, selected, and administered pursuant to Section 59-18-310.

   4. (4)

      1. (a) The special assessment panel must be composed of the following individuals or their designee:

         1. (i) the Chairman of the State Board of Education;
         2. (ii) the Chairman of the Education Oversight Committee;
         3. (iii) the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce;
         4. (iv) the Chairman of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education;
         5. (v) the Chairman of the South Carolina Technical College System Board; and
         6. (vi) the State Superintendent of Education.
      2. (b) A panel member who is authorized to designate a person to serve on the board in his stead only may make the designation if he intends for the designee to serve continuously instead of intermittently with himself or another designee.
      3. (c) The assessment panel must receive input from educators, parents, higher education officials, and business and community leaders on the components of a comprehensive and cohesive assessment system. The assessment panel must convene within two weeks of the effective date of this act, at the request of the Executive Director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority. The panel must complete its duties in a timely manner which enables the Executive Director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority to procure the assessments by September 30, 2014. Upon the procurement of a summative assessment system, the special assessment panel is dissolved.

   5. (5)

      1. (a) The cost of procuring the assessments pursuant to items (1) and (2), and any costs associated with the performance of the special assessment panel's duties must be borne by the Department of Education.
      2. (b) Staff support to the Executive Director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority and the special assessment panel must be provided by the Department of Education, Division of Accountability, Office of Assessment. In addition, if requested by the Executive Director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority or the special assessment panel, the Department of Education, the Education Oversight Committee, the State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education, and the Commission on Higher Education, must provide assistance to implement the provisions of this subsection.
   6. (6) Within thirty days after providing student performance data to the school districts as required by law, the department must provide to the Education Oversight Committee student performance results on assessments authorized in this subsection and end-of-course assessments in a format agreed upon by the department and the Oversight Committee. The Education Oversight Committee must use the results of these assessments in school years 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 to report on student academic performance in each school and district pursuant to Section 59-18-900. The committee may not determine state ratings for schools or districts, pursuant to Section 59-18-900, using the results of the assessments required by this subsection until after the conclusion of the 2015-2016 school year; provided, however, state ratings must be determined by the results of these assessments beginning in the 2016-2017 school year. The Oversight Committee also must develop and recommend a single accountability system that meets federal and state accountability requirements by the Fall of 2016.
   7. (7) The Department of Education must submit a plan for approval and implementation to the Board of Education to mitigate the impact that changes in assessments are projected to have on teacher evaluation systems. If such an impact can be reasonably mitigated by delaying evaluations, the department shall seek a waiver if necessary for federal approval.
   8. (8) When standards are subsequently revised, the Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and the Education Oversight Committee shall approve assessments pursuant to Section 59-18-320.

HISTORY: 2014 Act No. 155 (H.3919), Section 4, eff April 14, 2014; 2014 Act No. 200 (H.3893), Section 3, eff June 19, 2014.

Code Commissioner's Note

2014 Act No. 200 becomes effective June 19, 2014 pursuant to Section 2-7-10, i.e. 20 days following the Governor's signature, which was on May 30, 2014.

At the direction of the Code Commissioner, references in this section to the offices of the former State Budget and Control Board, Office of the Governor, or other agencies, were changed to reflect the transfer of them to the Department of Administration or other entities, pursuant to the directive of the South Carolina Restructuring Act, 2014 Act No. 121, Section 5(D)(1), effective July 1, 2015.

Editor's Note

2014 Act No. 200, Section 5, provides as follows:

"SECTION 5. On the effective date of this act, South Carolina will no longer be a governing or advisory state in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Furthermore, South Carolina may not adopt or administer the Smarter Balanced Assessment."

Effect of Amendment

2014 Act No. 200, Section 3, added subsection (C), relating to summative assessment.