Subject to available federal funds, present law requires LEAs and public charter schools to provide each student the opportunity to take nationally recognized assessments in the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years as a strategy for assessing and certifying students' career readiness and providing students with more choices in identifying career pathways.
This bill changes the above provisions by making the provision applicable to any school year and requiring the assessments offered to meet the following criteria:
(1) The assessments are standardized, criterion-referenced tests designed to measure a broad range of foundational workplace skills;
(2) The assessments adhere to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing developed by the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education;
(3) The assessments assess and confirm readiness for a variety of jobs;
(4) The assessments measure skills in a broad range of areas, including applied mathematics; workplace documents; and graphic literacy;
(5) The assessments align with research-based skill requirement profiles for specific industries and occupations;
(6) The assessments lead to nationally recognized work-readiness certificates or credentials for individuals who meet the minimum proficiency requirements on the component assessments;
(7) The assessments are available in paper and computer-based formats; and
(8) The assessments are aligned with a self-paced, modular skills curriculum that allows for skill remediation.
ON APRIL 20, 2023, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #2 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 198, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #2 adds the following clarification to the examples of areas in which the assessments in the 2023-2024 school year must measure:
(1) Critical thinking, mathematical reasoning, and problem-solving techniques in workplace situations, instead of applied mathematics;
(2) Reading and comprehending graphic materials, including charts, graphs, diagrams, and floor plans to solve work-related problems, instead of graphic literacy; and
(3) Reading and comprehending written information in documents, including emails, letters, directions, signs, bulletins, policies, websites, contracts, and regulations to make decisions and solve problems, instead of workplace documents.
This amendment further requires the assessments to be competitively procured by the department of education.
ON APRIL 20, 2023, THE HOUSE SUBSTITUTED SENATE BILL 198 FOR HOUSE BILL 250, ADOPTED AMENDMENT #3, AND PASSED SENATE BILL 198, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #3 specifies that soft skills are included in the foundational workplace skills measured by the assessments.
ON APRIL 21, 2023, THE SENATE NONCONCURRED IN HOUSE AMENDMENT #3.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 49-6-6001(b)(4), 49-6-6001