In 1998, the South Carolina legislature passed the "Education Accountability Act" which set standards for student performance and accountability for South Carolina school systems. At that time, Richland County School District 2 in Columbia, SC, turned to VC3 for help with developing a tool that would give administrators and teachers access to the standardized test data they needed to understand their students' academic histories and standings (click here for Richland 2 Case Study).

The new tool needed to meet the following criteria:

• Incorporate a searchable database of student test data for a variety of state and national standardized tests.
• Teachers and administrators needed to be able to easily track progress and generate reports based on a number of criteria and compare multiple test results side by side.
• The test data needed to include a variety of standarized tests, with the ability to add additional test scores as mandated by the state.
• The database would need to integrate with the SASI (Schools Administrative Student Information) database used across South Carolina.
• It would need to be teacher-friendly, cost effective, and flexible enough to be modified in the years to come.

VC3 developed the TestView application to meet these requirements.

Today, districts nationwide are further challenged by additional requirements from the Federal "No Child Left Behind" legislation, the increased number of standardized tests they must administer, and the explosion in growth of their student populations. Administrators have always wanted assessment to assist in curriculum development, but assessment can be very difficult and time consuming to do.

VC3 has enhanced TestView over time to meet the growing needs of Richland 2 and other districts nationwide. These districts use TestView as a resource to facilitate "data-driven decision-making for customizing academic instruction." They see the volumes of standardized test data not just as a means for government to judge their district's performance, but as a wealth of information they can use to help tailor instruction efforts for the unique needs of individual students.

VC3 has successfully designed a web-based application that fulfills an immediate need and sets the architecture for future enhancements and features.