COLUMBIA, S.C. - Two education agencies still disagree about whether students in grades three through eight should take two or four standardized tests next spring.

Money problems and concern that more testing may exhaust children have the Education Department and the Education Oversight Committee at odds.

Teachers don't know how many tests their 330,000 elementary and middle school students will take in May.

Rep. Bob Walker, R-Landrum, said the General Assembly might have to resolve the dispute in January.

The Education Department says it lacks about $1 million to pay for the full slate of Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests used to measure student progress in the six grades. The agency estimates it needs about $12 million to administer all four PACT tests.

Students have been tested in language arts and math since 1999. State Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum said the agency plans to add social studies and science versions of PACT to only two of the six grades in May.

The Education Oversight Committee questions Tenenbaum's decision. Committee members think the 1998 school reform law requires children in all six grades take tests in all four core subjects.

Columbia businessman Larry Wilson, a member of the Education Oversight Committee, said the expectations are not negotiable.

"It's disappointing to see we can't implement what we passed," Wilson said during a two-hour meeting Monday.

Tenenbaum said she would not change her mind.

Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said the law is clear.

"The superintendent doesn't have the authority to simply abandon the testing required by the Education Accountability Act," said Harrell, who wrote the accountability bill and is a member of the oversight committee.

The state's annual school ratings reflect student scores on the math and language arts versions of the test. The state decided in the late 1990s to also test in social studies and science.

Tenenbaum said her agency's testing experts worry fatigue could be a problem because children would take four high-stakes tests over 10 straight days. They point to PACT results from last spring, which have not been released. The state administered all four tests, including practice versions of the social studies and science tests.

Students took the language arts test last, and those scores are disappointing, Tenenbaum said.

"You don't go forward when you have concerns about ... reliable results," said Sandra Lindsay, who oversees standardized testing.

Dorothy Sluss, an early childhood education professor at Clemson University, said students taking standardized tests tire easily.

"We need to be mindful they can't leave. Legally we're requiring them to take a test for two weeks," Sluss said.

Information from: The State