By SARITA CHOUREY
MORRIS NEWS SERVICE

COLUMBIA -- As South Carolina education officials work to replace the 10-year-old Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests, they say they anticipate none of the pitfalls that educators in Georgia encountered when they revamped their state exam.

“In Georgia, I believe some of the difficulties are due to the fact that they increased the rigor of their performance standards,” said Teri Siskind, Deputy Superintendent for the S.C. Department of Education.

“I don't think we could increase the rigor beyond the rigor we already have,” she added. “We’re pretty close to the top of the scale.”

This year, thousands of students in Georgia received failing scores in some subjects after the state instituted a new curriculum and tests.

Officials there determined teachers had not had enough training to prepare students, and some tests were too difficult.

Last week in South Carolina, Gov. Mark Sanford allowed a bill to pass into law - without his signature - to replace the PACT, which is a standardized test given by subject to students in grades 3-8. The PACT, which measures proficiency, is the state test that meets the mandate of the South Carolina Education Accountability Act and the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

South Carolina teachers had long criticized the PACT for providing results in August when it was too late to be of use to students. They also said the existing test does not give enough detail about individual students’ strengths and weaknesses.

S.C. Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said the department has learned from its own experiences and would pay closer attention to hiring testing firms that will adhere to the schedule.

In a few past instances, testing companies had been slow to report scores, causing some schools to be late with report cards.

“Vendors have made promises on timelines,” said Rex. “They have missed those deadlines. ... So we’re aware of those, and we'll take those into consideration when we look at the RFP's (requests for proposals).”

In the ongoing effort to create a new test, officials have sought contractors for writing and scoring test questions, reporting the scores and printing test booklets. And in the last year and a half, state school officials have met in task forces and conferred with legislators, local educators and community leaders, and mixed experimental test questions into students’ exams.

But while replacing the PACT has been called one of the state’s biggest education reforms in a decade, it is a change that parents and students probably won’t even notice when it is administered next spring.

Some of the changes include:

-- The writing portion of the exam will be given in March instead of May. That will require teachers to change the order of what they teach.

-- Multiple choice questions will be given in May, along with the reading and math components already given in May.

-- Schools will get final results within a few weeks of the May tests, instead of in late July or August.

-- Tests will be given one of three scores instead of four.