In April, many Texas elementary and middle school students, including those in Austin Independent School District, got their look at the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests, which that replaces the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

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

"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," resident 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."

Already, one problem associated with TAKS dubbed "TAKS tummy" is now being rebranded as "STAAR tummy." "STAAR tummy" is a term to describe the effects of high-stakes testing on some children, 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," parent 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.

Scott announced 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 more than 160 other districts in favor of re-examining 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. "My own personal philosophy 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 said. "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. The board created a Citizens Bond Advisory Committee.

"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.

He said it is possible that the bond amount AISD asks for could be affected by the need for a tax ratification election if both are held in the same year.