With the mid-August release of scores from the 2016 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exams, education administrators, teachers, parents and students are looking to the Texas Commission on Next Generation Assessments and Accountability to see what the future holds for standardized testing in Texas.
Formed in 2015, the TCNGAA was tasked with providing recommendations to Gov. Greg Abbott each year regarding changes to be made to the statewide education system, including standardized testing.
“Standardized testing provides a single way to measure whether and how much all students are learning across the state,” Texas Education Agency spokesperson Lauren Callahan said. “TEA works with both houses of the Legislature by providing assistance and guidance on public education topics as needed. We then implement the legislation that is passed as it pertains to Texas public schools.”
This year’s TCNGAA report, submitted Sept. 1, includes recommendations that may address concerns voiced by Conroe ISD. Implementing an individualized, integrated system of multiple assessments using computerized-adaptive testing and instruction; allowing the commissioner of education to approve locally developed writing assessments; and streamlining the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills are some of the proposed changes.
Statewide standardized testing is a federal requirement and has been in place in Texas in various forms since 1980. Over the past 36 years, Texas Assessment of Basic Skills, or TABS, has evolved into STAAR, incurring mixed feelings from teachers and parents alike.
“I’m very pleased with how well our district does on a test that I feel does not represent our students accurately,” CISD board secretary Melanie Bush said. “I think we all agree it’s a flawed system. I don’t know that legislators will ever come up with a perfect system. I think we all agree that we don’t like it, but unfortunately, due to state law, we have to comply with it.”
In Texas, students in grades three through eight take STAAR tests each spring in math and reading. Additionally, fourth- and seventh-graders are tested in writing, fifth-graders are tested in science, and eighth-graders are tested in science and social studies.
Once in high school, students switch to end-of-course exams in algebra I, English I and II, biology and U.S. history, all of which must be passed in order to graduate.
CISD achieved a districtwide Met Standard rating this year with only one campus, Houston Elementary School, in need of improvement.
“We are strong across the board at the school district level, continuing to show great performance,” said Jim Kacur, CISD superintendent for secondary education. “That’s attributable to our great staff, our teachers working hard with our principals to get great results with our kids, and that happened once again this year.”
Although CISD performs above the state average almost annually, Bush said the results do not mean much.
“I don’t like STAAR because I don’t feel like it compares oranges and oranges,” Bush said. “It’s comparing this year’s third-graders to how well last year’s third-graders did—they aren’t the same kids. If we did a test at the beginning of the year instead of the end of the year, we could see what the kids need to work on and it would be proactive rather than reactive. The teachers would be able to tailor their lessons to their specific kids throughout the year, and at the end of the year, test them again and when they go from a class average of a 30 to an 80 or 90, you’ll see their progress.”
In addition to a bigger emphasis on progress over achievement, Bush also called for more local control over standardized testing, allowing teachers to have more of an influence in writing the test itself, rather than publishers.
Additional reporting by Beth Marshall and Emily Donaldson
