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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