Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS)

What is the purpose of the PASS tests?
In accordance with Act 282 (passed by the State Legislature in June 2008), the South Carolina Department of Education is developing a new statewide assessment program for students in grades three through eight. The new program, known as the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS), will be aligned to the state academic standards and will include tests in writing, English language arts (reading and research), mathematics, science, and social studies. The PASS test results will be used for school and school district accountability purposes beginning with the 2008-09 school year. The assessment results will also be used for federal accountability purposes (No Child Left Behind).

When will the PASS tests be administered?
The PASS tests will be administered in the spring of 2010.  Specific test dates for spring 20010 are provided in the 2010 Testing Schedule.

Which subjects and grade levels will be tested?
All students in grades three through eight will take the PASS writing, ELA, and mathematics tests. All students in grades 4 and 7 will take both the science and social studies tests. Students in grades 3, 5, 6, and 8 will take either the science or the social studies test (with approximately half of the students in each of those grades taking each test).

What types of items will be on the PASS tests?
The PASS writing test for each grade level will include multiple-choice items and one extended-response item. All other PASS tests will contain multiple-choice items only. The writing test will include editing passages and the ELA test will include reading passages linked to the multiple-choice items.

Will any PASS test items be read aloud to students?
The only test item that will be read aloud is the extended-response item on each PASS writing test. For the grades 3-8 PASS writing tests, test administrators will read aloud the writing topic or prompt and the directions for the extended-response ("Time to Write") item. Items will not be read aloud on any other parts of the PASS writing tests or on any other PASS tests.

Will students with disabilities be required to take the PASS tests?
All students with disabilities who are in grades 3-8 (or ages 8-13) must participate in PASS testing or in the South Carolina Alternate Assessment (SC-Alt). A student's IEP or 504 Plan team may determine that a student needs certain testing accommodations to participate in PASS testing in a way that allows the student's knowledge and skills, rather than disabilities, to be assessed. Testing accommodations must be those used by the student in instruction and classroom assessment throughout the school year. However, some instructional accommodations may not be allowable on the state assessment if they change the construct that is tested.

If the student's IEP team determines that the student is unable to participate in the assessment even with accommodations and the student meets the eligibility criteria for alternate assessment, the IEP team may then recommend that the student participate in the SC-Alt.

How and when will the PASS test results be reported?
The PASS tests are being designed to provide standard-level results for each subject - e.g., number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis and probability for mathematics. Standard setting for the PASS tests will take place during the summer of 2009. Therefore, spring 2009 test results will not be available until fall 2009. In 2010 and thereafter, PASS test results will be available by June 16.

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.

For more information, visit the State Department's website.