Although Abilene and Big Country educators weren’t able to make it Monday to Austin to provide input to Texas legislators about the upcoming new standardized test, some shared their concerns with the Reporter-News.

“I appreciate what they feel and try to accomplish, but the reality is that it’s a jumbled mess,” Novice ISD Superintendent Dale Freeman said of the implementation of State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). “We’ve spent an unbelievable amount of money — and we get this test this spring.”

“It’s just way too rushed. It’s just unbelievable, but it’s the Legislature,” Freeman added.

The House Public Education Committee heard testimony from school officials and educators about the new test’s implementation and its impact on the state’s public schools. Lawmakers were particularly interested in learning about any recommendation changes and ensuring schools wouldn’t rely too much on the test.

This spring, STAAR replaces the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). The STAAR aims to increase rigor and the number of end-of-courses tests students will take by the time they are seniors from 10 to 12.

Another aspect of STAAR, advocates have noted, is that it better tests students on what they learned the current year, where TAKS questions often tested students’ knowledge on subjects they learned possibly two years earlier.

In the first year of STAAR implementation, only students in third through ninth grade will take the test, which will represent 15 percent of their grade for English, math, science and social studies.

“The concern across the state for teachers is why we’re going to implement the test without having all the passing standards set, and with that, then it’s set up for each district to set that up for a numerical grade,” Wylie High Principal Mitch Davis said. “My understanding is that the test will be scored between 2,000 and 6,000 — and we don’t know what the passing rate will be.”

In addition to the unknown passing rates, Davis also was concerned about how school officials are to determine a final grade, who passes a class or how to implement remediation, if they don’t receive test scores back from the state until June. School ends for most public schools in late May.

“Depending on how you do your scale, you could have a lot of kids fail the test or your course,” Davis said. “The bottom line for all staff and educators is all the unanswered questions and so many unknowns. It’s hard to talk about because you can go into so many different directions.”

Freeman said his small district, located outside of Coleman, has also been frustrated by the lack of a test sample for third graders. He said the young students previously marked their responses in their booklet and the new STAAR requires the children to transfer their answers to a separate bubble sheet as well.

“There’s no example for us to know what the answer (booklet) will look like,” Freeman said. “We can use a Scantron and others, but you’d at least like your kids to look at an example, but no; it’s not available.”

Abilene ISD Superintendent Heath Burns said he, along with all of the state’s educators, was invited recently to testify in Austin about his concerns about the STAAR test and end-of-course exams.

“I am a great fan of rigor and of accountability,” he said. “However, I have concerns that state standards continue to rise, and school funding continues to plummet. Moreover, I am not at all pleased that the state statute requires the ISD to weight a state developed standardized test into a student’s course grade. This idea is not necessarily bad; however, such decisions belong in the hands of our locally elected board members, not in the hands of lawmakers in Austin.”

The English portion of the STAAR test runs from March 26 to 29, and high school students will take the math, science and social studies classes end-of-course tests from May 7 to 18. Fourth- and seventh-graders will take the writing test March 26 to 29. Fifth- and eighth-graders will take their math and reading tests March 26 to 29.

However, sophomores, juniors and seniors will remain with the TAKS and take it April 23-27.

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