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Article published: Dec 9, 2005
Sumter County legislative delegation prefiles 2 education-related bills

Sumter County representatives prefiled two bills Wednesday dealing with education.

One would solely affect residents of military bases and the other would affect testing throughout the state.

Rep. Joe Neal, D-Hopkins, is co-sponsoring a bill along with eight other legislators to computerize the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test.

Computerizing the test would allow teachers to get results more quickly, Neal said, which in turn would allow them to spot problems and adjust the curriculum accordingly.

Right now, students take the test at the end of the school year and the results are announced the following September. If the test were computerized, Neal said, students could take it at any time of the year and it could be used as a benchmark for individual students' learning.

Using the test as a benchmark would give "an ability for teachers to adjust their teaching and curriculum to the needs of the children," Neal said.

Some school districts already use supplemental testing that allows them to assess individual students' progress, but not all districts can afford additional tests, Neal said.

Sumter School District 17, for example, uses tests developed by its curriculum resource teachers and classroom teachers to assess student progress, said Dr. Yvonne Barnes, the assistant superintendent for instruction.

Students take a math assessment twice a year and assessments in English, social studies and science every quarter.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, would give more choices to students whose parents are required to live on base.

The bill would allow the students' parents to send them to any school in the county in which the base is located, meaning children who live at Shaw Air Force Base could go to any school in District 2 or 17.

"It was an idea that came up when they were talking about Shaw Air Force Base and the BRAC list," Smith said.

Since military personnel required to live on base don't have the option of moving into a particular neighborhood to send their children to a specific school, this bill would give them that choice, Smith said.

However, he added, the education committee would still need to determine the constitutionality of the bill. Some school districts in urban areas have some form of choice within a district, he said, but whether choice across district lines is acceptable needs to be researched.