Vote on testing bill, Rex says

By BILL ROBINSON - brobinson@thestate.com

State schools chief Jim Rex challenged the S.C. Senate on Thursday to vote on legislation that would replace the current standardized testing system with one educators tell him would be more useful.

The bill, which originated in the House, is in limbo because Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, raised objections after a Senate education committee endorsed it April 23. The 2008 Legislature’s last day of business is June 5.

“This bill has strong merit,” Rex told reporters in a hastily called teleconference. “We’re going to run out of time.”

Ryberg insists Rex has unilateral authority to order new tests that each state must administer to comply with federal law.

All Rex has to do, Ryberg said, is get the state Board of Education and the Education Oversight Committee to agree on the changes he wants to make.

Rex said that could prove cumbersome. Both panels are comprised of political appointees that sometimes split along partisan lines, he noted.

“It would take years,” he said.

Ryberg counters that lawmakers should avoid dictating the kind of testing the state’s public school systems must use.

“I’m concerned about the Legislature being more involved day to day in education issues,” Ryberg said.

Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests are administered each spring to students in grades three through eight. They were created in the late 1990s to measure what children know about math, science, English-language arts and social studies.

Many teachers say those tests do a poor job of providing detailed information about an individual child’s strengths and weaknesses.

Rex, a Democrat, has lobbied Ryberg privately to set aside his objections, but they failed to reach a compromise. Ryberg said he could support the bill if it didn’t include sections stipulating the next type of test to use.

“The main thrust of the bill is to get rid of PACT, and I fully support that concept,” Ryberg said. “PACT is an ineffective way to measure student achievement and should have been eliminated six months ago.”

Call Robinson at (803) 771-8482.