In some districts, nine of 10 African-American children can be expected to flunk because of their PACT scores. Nearly 60 percent of the students retained in South Carolina are black. The plans may include remediation, though the guidelines are vague. If at the end of that school year the students have not caught up, the school can retain them or promote them and place them on academic probation, said South Carolina's Deputy Superintendent of Education, Sandra Lindsay. If at the end of the next school year they still are below grade level and score below basic on PACT, they are retained.
Educators see an intrinsic unfairness.
Carol Sherron, runs a school in Greenville that has leveled courses such as average and above average history courses. Clearly, the students don't have the same opportunity to master the same skills at the same grades. Yet they face the same test. Students in rural districts who don't have teachers for basic subjects also face the same test. Philosophically we should hold kids to the same standards, but we have to do that at Day One, not when the test comes.