October 5, 2015      3:59 PM
Test scores still show huge gaps in performance, improvement
Trends with the STAAR have been different from its predecessors and figuring out why is not always apparent
Texas students failed 1.8 million standardized tests last
year, and results from the summer retests were so dismal as to alarm long-time
observers.
The state has now gone through five generations of standardized
tests: TABS, TEAMS, TAAS, TAKS
and now STAAR. General trends are
almost always the same: Scores start low; then typically rise. Elementary
schools typically score better than secondary schools. And, eventually,
students top out of the test and a new series is created.
STAAR has been somewhat
different, and the answer as to why is not always apparent. In a session at the
TASA/TASB Conference
in Austin, Maria Whitsett
of Moak Casey & Associates
outlined differences around STAAR, not the least of
which was an estimate that 1.8 million tests were failed last year.
By Kimberly Reeves
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