The percentage of Greenville County Schools students scoring Met or Exemplary on the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) tests increased from 2011 to 2012 in 19 of 26 tests, including all grade levels in science. The results were released recently by the State Department of Education.
GCS students outperformed the state in every subject area (writing, English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies) and at all grades 3 through 8.
PASS, the state’s accountability test, has three scoring levels:
· 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.
· Students who received Met or Exemplary scores meet state academic standards.
PASS was first administered in 2009 to replace the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests (PACT). In 2010, the State Board of Education adopted standards proposed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative in the subjects of English language arts and mathematics. This decision will require the adoption of a new accountability test beginning in the 2014-15 school year for these subjects and could be administered to most students by computer.
