STAAR exam rankles pundits

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June 22, 2012

STAAR exam rankles pundits

By GREG RUSSELL, Register Staff Writer Gainesville Daily Register The Daily Register Fri Jun 22, 2012, 08:57 AM CDT

Current speculation about Texas high school testing scores has had a negative slant, and some local officials are wondering why.

The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam began this spring as an annual replacement for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) program. The new standardized test, which differs highly from TAKS and has final standards set to be enforced gradually through 2016, is said to have presented a rigid challenge to ninth-grade students, based on the first round of results examined this week by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and members of the Texas House Public Education Committee.

The Associated Press and a story from American Broadcasting Company affiliate KVUE.com released these statewide average scores: a passing rate of 41 percent in biology; a 39 percent passing rate in algebra; a 34 percent passing rate in writing; a 46 percent passing rate in reading; and a 40 percent passing rate in world geography.

The scores are displeasing some parents.

“I think it's a travesty,” the KVUE.com story quoted Dineen Majcher, parent and founder of Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment. “Based on recent results that TEA just released, that test is not measuring what our students have been taught in the classroom, and obviously it's time for a course correction.”

The story also quoted parent Mike Corwin, who said he feels Texas school districts are “caught up in a vice” between funding cuts and testing problems.

“All these students are having to go back to STAAR camp and train again and try to pass these tests, and it's draining millions of dollars out of our school budgets,” Corwin said.

Gainesville ISD Superintendent Jeff Brasher said Thursday he wasn’t apt to release local testing scores, since he wanted to retain privacy on behalf of students and teachers, and added that the current concern about the scores is premature.

“You always hope for greater achievement from your students,” he said Thursday. “You always want your kids to do better, on some level. But I think the STAAR standards are very difficult, very challenging — and that’s the idea.”

Brasher said the difficulty of the new testing system is merely a function of its role.

“Every time you transition from one state test to the next, that’s the purpose: to create a more challenging test so that students can strive and that teachers and communities can strive to achieve,” he said. “And so far, I feel, generally speaking, that the state has risen to the challenge.”

But Brasher added that the current speculation will have more buoyancy after 2013 testing, since there will be two years of STAAR scores to use in comparisons.

“You really don’t know what this means, collectively, until then,” he said. “And that’s why you’re getting all this press about this now. Everyone’s saying, ‘Why are they poor?’ But based on what?”

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STAAR exam rankles pundits

Gainesville City Council has proposed an ordinance that would place restrictions on smoking in certain public areas in the city. How do you feel the council should handle the issue?

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