South Carolina State Assessments

The mission of the Office of Assessment and Standards is to promote student success in obtaining the qualities of a College- and Career-Ready student, as outlined in the Profile of the SC Graduate, through the development and support of rigorous academic standards to inform instruction and high-quality assessments that provide reliable information used to draw valid conclusions about student performance. 

The SC READY and EOCEP test items are aligned to the standards for each subject and grade level. Standards specify what schools are expected to teach and what students are expected to learn. Academic standards also include indicators that are statements of the specific cognitive processes and the content knowledge and skills that students must demonstrate to meet the grade-level standards. SC READY and EOCEP test items are written to assess the content knowledge and skills described in the academic standards and indicators. 

All students are required to participate in SC READY (grades 4 and 6 for science) and EOCEP (Biology 1 for science). 

The SC READY and EOCEP assessments are not timed.

The science test consists of Selected Response (SR), Evidence Based Selected Response (EBSR), and Technology Enhanced (TE) item types : drag and drop, hot spot (click to select), match interaction (click to select based on criteria), and text highlight. Constructed-response items are bar graph (click to generate bars on a graph), numeric response, and drop-down list. Tests also include stimulus sets consisting of a short passage that may contain a graph, map, diagram, etc. and three associated questions. 

For more information about the South Carolina Alternate Assessment, visit the SC-Alt portal.