April 14, 2014      12:49 PM
Concerns about standardized tests are aired at Senate Education hearing
Despite deep cuts in standardized testing, senators still worry about standards and the amount of testing
A
greater percentage of Texas high school students are on track to graduate under
the STAAR testing system than had
been under the TAKS, members of the Senate
Education Committee were told on Monday. But lawmakers on the panel –
about a third of whom are seeking statewide office this year – are still concerned
that teachers are teaching to a test and that standards for passing it are low
enough that they leave kids ill-equipped for college or a career.
For
about an hour, senators grilled the Texas Education Agency’s Associate
Commissioner of Assessment & Accountability Criss Cloudt. She told the panel that 76 percent of students in the
class of 2015 have successfully completed 4 of the 5 tests they’ll need to
graduate. It is the first class that has to pass the 5 assessments required
under reforms to standardized testing.
Under
questioning by senators, Cloudt said that when the state used the Texas
Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, 28 percent were not on track to
graduate because of their test scores. That number has fallen to 24 percent
under the end-of-course exams called the State of Texas Assessments of Academic
Readiness, or STAAR. However, it is not
really an apples-to-apples comparison, Cloudt said, mainly because these are
very different tests.
By Scott Braddock
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