Vance County Schools – Required High School Testing


Vance County Schools wants to keep students and their parents informed about required testing in our high schools for grades 9-12.

According to State Board of Education policy, students who are enrolled for credit in courses in which end-of-course (EOC) assessments are required shall take the appropriate EOC assessment at the completion of the course. Students may drop a course with an EOC assessment within the first 10 days of enrollment in a semester/4X4 course or within the first 20 days of enrollment in a traditional yearlong course. Students who are enrolled for credit after the 10/20 days, regardless of course delivery (e.g., traditional classroom, N.C. Virtual Public School, vendor-based online), must participate in the appropriate EOC assessment (i.e., READY EOC general assessment with or without accommodations).

For the 2014-2015 school year, EOC tests are available in Biology for 11th graders, English II for 10th graders and Math 1 for 10th graders. Schools are required by the state to have 95 percent of their students enrolled in these courses taking the EOC tests at the end of the course.

Additional information on requirements for N.C. READY EOC assessments for high school students includes:

  • Local school systems have the option of administering EOC tests in the online or paper-and-pencil format; however, online testing is strongly encouraged.
  • The EOC tests are aligned with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for English/language arts/reading and mathematics and the North Carolina Essential Standards for science.
  • EOC tests are given during the last five days of the instructional period of semester/4X4 courses or the last 10 days of the instructional period for traditional yearlong courses.
  • In Vance County Schools, the EOC test score for students counts as 25 percent of their final grade.

All students identified as Limited English Proficient (LEP) must be annually assessed to determine progress and level of English language proficiency.

Students in the 10th grade take the ACT Plan in October. ACT Plan is a curriculum-based educational and career planning program for 10th graders.  ACT Plan includes four multiple-choice tests: English, math, reading, and science. The ACT Explorer is a similar test given to eighth graders in middle school. The N.C. College and Career Readiness Alternative assessment is given to students in the Department for Exceptional Children with a current Individual Education Plan (IEP).

Students in the 11th grade take the ACT in March. The ACT is a curriculum and standards-based assessment that evaluates 11th graders’ general learning outcomes in English, mathematics, reading, science and writing. The ACT is used as a college admissions and placement test and is accepted by all four-year colleges and universities in the United States. The English, mathematics, reading and science tests are multiple-choice tests. The ACT writing test complements the English test. The combined information from both tests tells post-secondary institutions about students’ understanding of the conventions of standard written English and their ability to produce a direct sample of writing. The ACT also includes a career exploration component.

Students in the 12th grade, who are identified as Career and Technical Education (CTE) concentrators, are required to take the ACT WorkKeys assessments. The three ACT WorkKeys assessments, which are the basis of the National Career Readiness Certificate program, include Applied Mathematics, Locating Information and Reading for Information.