Many Texas elementary and middle school students, including those in Austin Independent School District, are getting their first spoonful of the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests this week, a test that replaces the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

The March 26 AISD regular board meeting agenda didn't contain any documents or mention of standardized testing reform, but that didn't discourage several parents from advocating a resolution that denounces high-stakes standardized testing.

Standardized testing has quickly become a state and national issue, one that has community members concerned over the quality of education children are receiving.

"I think if you talk to any parent, educator, student and now you have fiscal administrators speaking out all across the state, saying that we've gone way too far. We're spending 45 days out of the school year preparing for benchmarks, drilling, and the whole thing, for the test," Mike Corwin said during citizens communication. "I think there is a broad consensus that has come together to say we've overstepped on this issue. It has actually been deleterious to our kids' education."

Already, problems that were associated with TAKS such as "TAKS tummy" are now being rebranded as a similar strain called "STAAR tummy"—a term to describe the effects of high-stakes testing on kids, including nausea, vomiting, headaches, and in extreme cases, defecating.

"High-stakes testing is universally hated by most everyone--teachers, students, parents, everyone except the few who profit," Cindy Beringer said. "The worst thing about high-stakes testing, in my opinion, is the mind-numbing boredom. I'm terrified at the thought of [my granddaughter] entering kindergarten, getting to the third grade, having to be taught a test and having the joy of learning completely killed for her."

At a State Board of Education meeting in January, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott called the current system for standardized testing a "perversion" of its original intent, adding, "You've reached a point now of having this one thing that the entire system is dependent upon. It is the heart of the vampire, so to speak."

Those strong words ultimately led to Scott announcing on Feb. 22 that the decision to require end-of-course exams to account for 15 percent of a student's final grade would be left in Texas school districts' hands for the 2011-12 school year.

At the Feb. 27 regular board meeting, the AISD board of trustees unanimously approved policy revisions stating that AISD students' scores on this year's STAAR exam would not affect students' grades or class rank. Now, AISD may consider taking that cause a step further by joining a resolution to "de-escalate" high-stakes testing. They would unify with what has been reported as over 160 other districts in favor of re-examining and reforming standardized testing.

"I think we'll consider it. Our intergovernmental folks have looked at it, I was aware of it, we've asked the Texas Association of School Boards for guidance and what they are thinking," board president Mark Williams said. "We're in a little bit different place because we're in the state capital, and we're a bigger [district]. My own personal philosophy—which may or may not be reflective of the board—is I'm with them (the resolution). I think high-stakes testing, the pressure of accountability, the pressure of punitive sanctions, is not a productive way to run school districts."

"The question is: What do we do instead?" he posed. "I don't think the testing system right now does what people want it to be doing.

Bond election

The AISD board will likely call for a bond election—though when is yet to be determined—to address maintenance and operating issues within the district. The board authorized the creation of a Citizens Bond Advisory Committee, which will be charged with the following tasks:

  • Develop new facility and facility improvement recommendations.
  • Determine the components of the bond proposal.
  • Recommend the total amount to be included on the bond election ballot.
  • Make priority recommendations to the board of trustees regarding the scope of work for a future bond program.
  • Assist the district in communication of factual information to the community about the priority recommendations adopted by the board.

"What we need the committee to do is start putting all this stuff together so that we can then start analyzing not if we go for a bond package, but when and how much," Williams said.

The board president added that the process in determining what the district needs is a 12 to 18-month procedure, and the demand is almost always greater than what the district can request.

He also confirmed that it is possible that the bond amount AISD asks for could be directly affected by the need for a Tax Ratification Election should the elections be held in the same year.

"In 2008, we had a bond election in May and a TRE in November. Both passed," he said. "But it's a different climate now. There was an economic recession beginning in 2008, and it got worse, and since then we've had the last biennium where the state budget cuts have been dramatic."

At some point, AISD may have to decide whether to go after operating dollars or bond dollars. According to Williams, bond dollars give the district more bang for its buck due to the fact that the money is not subject to recapture.

Other notes

The board unanimously approved the naming of a new early childhood center in honor of Anita Uphaus. The new Anita Uphaus Early Childhood Center, located at 5200 Freidrich Lane, will open in fall 2012. Uphaus taught at Graham and Cook elementary schools and retired from AISD in 2006 after more than 30 years with the district.