STAAR Testing

I saw on the news that the Board of Education is wanting to make the STAAR Test 15% of a student's high school grade. It was actually sent back by the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, but the Education Commissioner stated that they are going to review and decide what percentage if any it should count as part of the student's grade.

Having a mother that is a teacher, I think this is a terrible idea. The way the STAAR test has been modified, they have increased the rigor and focus so much attention for the school system on the results of the testing, that it has totally changed the dynamic of the classroom. Teachers have to focus nearly all their time instructing to make sure that these students pass this test because the funding and ranking of a school depends on how well students do on the test; the student passing to the next grade depends on it as well. However, teachers aren't allowed to see the test or even know what is on it, so they have to teach to these general ideas and do the best they can to make sure the students understand the material. The problem is, there AP or advanced students, and there are students at a regular or even slower paced level -some even with learning disabilities, who have to take this test. And their learning methods are all very different and some need a lot more attention and time than others. But, because the teachers are basically being told what they have to teach, and given all these "topics" to teach on, they have to go at a certain pace, and it is pretty rushed. This doesn't give the teacher any room to be creative- to use creative ways to help the students learn and understand. They don't have the time or opportunity to teach them certain life-skills that come (or used to come) with everyday education, and there are a lot of important stories, lessons, and the like, that the students don't get to learn because the curriculum has been totally changed to focus on this one test.

The problem with this is, a student passing a test does not show that they have learned or been given all the resources they need to move on in life or to the next grade. It shows that they **hopefully** learned how to pass the STAAR test. In addition to that, many students have issues with testing- maybe have test anxiety or just don't perform well on tests, and this is a standardized test which is already different from what students take in their everyday classes. With that, the state has gone and made this test even more difficult and used larger, harder words, etc. It's not an accurate measure of students' comprehension of subjects or the knowledge and skills they have developed. There are so many problems with this test and the policies that come along with it that I don't even have time to get into. My main argument is, students are not fully equipped with the way things are set up now, and this definitely should not be factored into their final grade to determine whether or not they get to graduate. When trying to get into colleges, all that should matter is that they passed- maybe even how well they did. But there isn't a standardized test like this at the college level, so their performance shouldn't dictate their regular GPA. Colleges need to see that a student knows how to perform in the classroom and manage their time. That could  be a totally different reflection on their GPA than the results of the STAAR Test, so that should be what is recorded at the end of the school year. The STAAR Test should have nothing to do with it.