State Sen. Kal Seliger (R-Amarillo).
State Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) said the 2020-21 school year will be about adapting to a new way to learn, and the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests should be set aside for the coming academic year.
Seliger represents the 31st District, which spans 37 counties from the Panhandle to the Permian Basin and includes Amarillo, Midland, Odessa and Big Spring. There are 90 school districts entirely or partly in his district, and they face big challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that closed schools early in the spring.
“There’s a lot of new ground that will be covered,” Seliger told Education Daily Wire.
Not administering the STAAR tests, as well as dropping the A-F grading scale, is the best way to handle the school year, he said. Other legislators have called for the tests, which start in the 3rd grade, to be dropped for the upcoming school year. The Texas State Teachers Association agrees.
TSTA spokesman Clay Robison said in June the tests should be postponed “for another year to give teachers more time to address the learning gap that some students will have suffered because of the school closures this spring."
"Even under normal circumstances, STAAR testing and preparation waste time and money that should be spent on real teaching and learning, not prepping for a standardized test that does nothing except measure a student’s ability to pass a test,” he added.
However, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told the state Board of Education that STAAR, which was dropped this spring after the pandemic spread across the country, will be back for the 2020-2021 school year.
Seliger said he respects Morath who is trying to deal with an unprecedented situation and that the commissioner is working “day and night” to negotiate this crisis.
Seliger, however, favors no widespread standardized testing. He argues that there are too many complications, including some students not having access to all school facilities, school districts figuring out hybrid schedules with some in-class instruction as well as distance learning along with the threat of students and teachers getting infected and being forced into isolation.
“The STAAR tests don’t tell us everything we need to know about a student,” he said, noting he has worked on education matters during his tenure in Austin.
“Working with educators and business leaders, Sen. Seliger helped pass HB 5 — a bill that put the TAKS test out to pasture, created five different diploma plans for kids in public schools, and renewed emphasis on career and technical training,” his website states. “This new approach recognizes that all students are different and that a one-size-fits-all focus on testing benefits no one. It creates alternate pathways to the workforce for students who may not go to college, allowing them to graduate high school with professional skills and certifications that make them highly employable.”
Seliger sponsored a bill in 2015 to allow school districts to create a graduation committee made up of a principal, counselor, teacher and parent to review a student’s status after he or she had failed classes and was in danger of not graduating. If the committee, after examining grades, test scores and attendance, unanimously agreed, the student will be allowed to graduate.
The bill had the support of several school districts and passed. Seliger said it has worked well.
“Administrators take it very, very seriously,” he told Education Daily Wire. “It’s not designed to bypass the system.”
The senator said the goal is to prepare students for higher education and the workplace. He met a student who struggled with tests. But her grades were good and she had been accepted by a college in Oklahoma. She was able to obtain a high school diploma and continue her education.
“Were we a success? Was her school district a success?” he asked rhetorically. "The answer is yes. Tests are not the only means to evaluate a student."
He doesn’t take credit for being an educational innovator. Seliger said he listens to teachers and administrators and learns from them.
Seliger, 67, has served in the Texas Senate since 2005. Prior to joining the legislature, he was a member of the Amarillo City Commission and a four-term mayor.
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