The State: Another lawmaker calls on Rex to change PACT
Filed Under Bryant, Caucus, Uncategorized
A second Republican lawmaker is calling on the Democratic state schools chief to take the lead in eliminating the annual testing program for elementary and middle school students and replace it with new exams that do a better job measuring academic achievement.
State Sen. Kevin L. Bryant of Anderson sent Jim Rex a letter Friday urging the superintendent to marshal a switch in tests with the help of two politically appointed panels that oversee public education. Bryant also posted the letter on his web site.
The 2008 edition of Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests, which students in grades three-through-eight must take, will be ad-ministered starting Tuesday. Teachers say that test has flaws and needs to be replaced. Rex agrees and has asked the Legislature to pass a law ordering the change.
Bryant, however, wrote that “The department you administer holds the responsibility for the PACT test and might have as early as January 2007, begun the elimination of the PACT, but instead decided to extend the PACT for another year (2008).”
“I remain frustrated as to this series of decisions,” Bryant wrote.
Bryant’s senate colleague Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, also opposes enacting legislation that would authorize a switch from PACTs to another type of test that teachers say would provide better information about student achievement. Ryberg’s formal objections, so far, have blocked the State Senate from acting on the legislation that already has won approval in the House.
Rex fired back Friday with a letter of his own that he posted on Bryant’s web site under the “comments” section.
“I cannot make unilateral ‘pronouncements’ regarding testing because the General Assembly took away my authority to do that,” Rex wrote, adding … “the only way to guarantee that we will have a new testing system in place by spring 2009 would be for the Gen-eral Assembly to require it.”
Rex contends the bill languishing on the state senate’s “contested calendar” also contains other important modifications to the 1998 school reform law he says are needed in the interest of efficiency.
“Like you, I remain frustrated that (10) years have gone by with no major changes to the Education Accountability Act (EAA) cre-ated by the General Assembly. Now is an opportune time to update and improve that law,” Rex wrote.
Rex says too much time would be wasted trying to craft an administrative proposal that would need the approval of the state Board of Education as well as the Education Oversight Committee, both panels that lawmakers appoint.
Bryant acknowledges the legislation “does indeed discontinue the PACT, but for the sake of our teachers, students, and parents I ask you at this point to stop the PACT.
“You can do this with a simple pronouncement, today, that the PACT will not be administered in 2009. I trust you will make the right decisions,” Bryant wrote.
Published in The State Newspaper
by Bill Robinson
May 9, 2008
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