Wasteful STAAR Exams Hurt Students, Teachers by Ted Lyon, Special Contributor

Wasteful STAAR Exams hurt students, teachers by Ted Lyon, Special Contributor

Public education in Texas is in trouble. It is seriously underfunded by billions of dollars, and we could now be facing tens of thousands of high school dropouts later this year due to state budget cuts and the new STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) Exams. At least 150,000 and perhaps as many as 200,000 high school freshmen failed at least one STAAR exam in April and May. STAAR retake exams were given the week of July 9. Superintendents from across the state recently warned of a rapidly escalating dropout rate among these students. In 2011, the Texas Legislature cut funding for public education by $5.3 million, including critical reductions in state-funded preschool and state grants to help at-risk students stay in school. Per capita public school appropriations in Texas compared with other states have declined rapidly in recent years, sending Texas toward the bottom nationally in education funding. During the 2011 / 2012 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency, more than 10,000 teachers were laid off, and the numbers are likely to worsen during the coming school year. At the same time the Legislature has implemented major cuts to education funding, it hasn't cut funding for high-stakes testing. Texas has already paid Pearson, an educational conglomerate based in London, $151 million for the STAAR Exams. If the state doesn't terminate the contract, by 2016 Texas will have paid Pearson a total of $468 million for the STAAR Exams. What a waste! Not only do these exams fail to prepare students for college, they will deny large numbers of students the opportunity to graduate from high school and sentence them to a life of dead-end jobs and a bleak future. These exams do nothing to enhance critical thinking, and many of their advocates have a hidden agenda of privatizing public education in Texas by using them to claim that public education is a "failure." It is amazing to me that many of those who rail against interference from Washington are all too glad to interfere with school districts across Texas by dictating from Austin a top-down, heavy-handed, ill-conceived system of high- stakes testing that is a colossal failure. It is wasteful, lines the pockets of special interests and is harmful to our students and the educational process. Mandated tests consume valuable time that should be used for teaching. Most schools spend 45 days out of the 180 days in a school year in some form of mandated testing. This type of thinking is absurd. It is time to restore traditional common sense and Texas values in funding and shaping our public education policy for Texas by eliminating high-stakes testing. The House Public Education Committee and the Senate Education Committee should hold hearings on high-stakes testing before schools open this month to enable public school administrators and teachers to testify. Finally, I strongly encourage you to participate in a unique experience. Go to ourvalues ourtexas.com, and join the conversation with other Texans about the root causes of our state budget crisis and how we can find solutions to fund public education and other essential state services. The people of Texas need to understand how our money is spent and what options we have to fund the basic obligations of our state government. Our leaders and our Legislature have dug an enormous financial hole for all of us, and it's time we work together to determine how best to eliminate it. Get rid of the system and you'll be failing our kids by Bill Hammond

Texas has long been a leader in assessment and accountability in its public schools. Yet, what we're seeing today is nothing short of a full-frontal assault on proven standards with demonstrable results. Efforts to malign the state's assessment and accountability standards as "drill and kill" testing that "costs too much" and is a "perversion of their original intent" is nothing more than rhetorical warfare, full of flair but devoid of facts. The fact is that accountability works and should be expanded, not dismantled. Consider the National Assessment of Education Progress data that show Texas' black and Hispanic students are achieving at more than three grade-levels higher in math than they were in 1992, when public school accountability and testing measures were first introduced. Across the board, Texas' fourth- and eighth-grade students — black, Hispanic and white — have all made significant progress in math, outpacing national averages. Testing results show progress in fourth- and eighth-grade reading, as well. Assessment and accountability are essential to postsecondary readiness, and postsecondary readiness is absolutely vital to the future of our state's economy. That's why organizations such as ours, along with many others in the business community, want state leaders to advance, not retreat from, the effective accountability measures that were established with broad-based, bipartisan support from the Texas Legislature. The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness give Texas taxpayers, parents, students and educators the ability to fairly and scientifically measure whether we are succeeding in providing access to quality education and preparing our children to be postsecondary ready, whether that's college, technical or trade school or other credentialing programs. Yet education bureaucrats appear to want to move away from a system of "trust, but verify" to simply, "Trust us, just take our word for it that we're using tax dollars wisely and effectively to deliver a quality education to every Texas student." That's simply not acceptable. The STAAR accountability system will extend the progress already seen in lower grade levels to high school, helping to ensure that our state's students are well-equipped and prepared for future careers. In addition to providing a more rigorous education and accountability system, STAAR end-of-course exams would actually reduce the cost and administrative burdens associated with additional state-mandated testing by allowing end-of-course exams to be administered as finals. The state's accountability system since its inception in the early 1990s has produced substantial progress. STAAR and the earlier state assessments are cost-effective, scientifically proven tools to assure students, parents and taxpayers that Texas public schools are equipping students with essential skills and pertinent knowledge. Last month, the Texas House Public Education Committee convened a public hearing to discuss the state's new assessment system for public schools, including testimony from some very vocal opponents aggressively working to do away with the system. The tragic irony of that testimony and that public hearing date was not lost on me. It was Juneteenth. And, on a day that we commemorated the abolition of slavery, we also heard talk of dismantling and devolving the STAAR assessments and standards. Texas' black and Hispanic students stand to lose the most if education bureaucrats and their allies are successful in their rollback or abandonment of the state's STAAR accountability measures for Texas public schools. Given the great progress that we've seen with improved academic performance among black and Hispanic students, I'd argue, too, that we're facing a real civil rights issue. We need every child to succeed. Doing away with our system of accountability for our public schools is morally bankrupt.