Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

The History of the Dakota Assessment of Content Standards (DACS)

During the 2001 legislative session Senate Bill 234 was signed into law which mandates that every South Dakota school district administer the same criterion-referenced academic achievement test, once in the fall semester and once again in the spring semester, to all students in grades three, six, and ten. The test was to be administered starting in the spring of the 2001-2002 school year. It further mandated that this criterion-referenced test shall be highly correlated with the state's graduation requirements, course guidelines, and academic content standards.

The DACS (Dakota Assessment of Content Standards) had been identified by the South Dakota Department of Education & Cultural Affairs to meet the mandates of this law. The DACS is an on-line test developed by EdVISION. (www.edvision.com) The DACS is a Standards Adaptive Measurement (SAM) assessment. SAM tracks the mastery or non-mastery of learning objectives to determine the logical point of frustration in each instructional unit. The system adjusts the test items based on the student’s ability level. There is no out-of-level testing and each student receives a unique test for his or her ability level. The branching system in SAM allows students to move through the test based on their instructional level.

During the 2000 – 2001 school year, South Dakota school districts were able to pilot the DACS in Reading and Math. By January 2002 over 76,000 tests in math and reading were delivered online.

Logon to the EdVision website at www.edperformance.com 

Contact Information:  Anyone interested in more information about the DACS program should contact Nette (Jeanette) Meade at the SD Department of Education.  Phone: 605-773-4662 or Email: jeanette.meade@state.sd.us