Conroe school district seeks STAAR exam waiver for 2020-21

After the Conroe Independent School District (CISD) passed and submitted a resolution asking for the cancellation of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) to politicians, Rep. Will Metcalf (R-Conroe) released on Facebook a July 24 letter he sent to Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath, supporting the move.

“Assuming that all children learn and perform the same way, putting their future advancement on large stakes exams at the end of the year is a very poor way to judge the success of a child,” Metcalf wrote. “We need to give our educators greater freedom to teach and our children, the ability to learn without the impending fear of the ability to pass a high stakes test or not.”

In addition to the Conroe ISD, Rep. Metcalf joins state Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano), the Wichita Falls Independent School District, Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Denton), Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Travis) and Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van) in supporting the waiver of accountability ratings. Gov. Greg Abbott suspended the controversial testing program in May due to the COVID-19 shutdown.

“I personally feel that the main driver for TEA to continue pushing forward with STAAR is financial,” said Scott Moore, the Conroe ISD board member who wrote and submitted the July 21 resolution. “The STAAR vendor stands to make a lot of money if the test continues, and the TEA stands to lose a lot of money if they don't honor their contractual obligations with the vendor.”

The TEA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“I submitted the resolution after considering the totality of what the STAAR data is used for each year,” Moore told Education Daily Wire. “The 2019-2020 STAAR was canceled because of lost classroom time in the spring. I believe teachers should have the freedom in the 2020-2021 school year to address individual student needs and work with the students to address any potential loss of learning progress.”

As previously reported, the board voted in favor of the resolution because the STAAR test takes up a lot of time. Superintendent Curtis Null told the Community Impact newspaper that the first four weeks of the year will consist of distance learning for all students.

“The fact is that the tests are not necessarily reflective of students' actual learning accomplishments,” said Moore in an interview. “The tests have explicit and implicit cultural biases built into them that unfairly harm certain populations. As they stand, they are not an adequate or appropriate measurement tool for the learning that takes place, or should be taking place, in Texas' classrooms.” 

Instead, Moore said that this is the perfect time to consider new options of student performance measures, campus or district accountability and to account for multiple learning delivery methods and student performance measures.

“Teachers need to address individual student needs rather than addressing state-mandated learning objectives which may or may not be applicable to students' current situations," he said. "With no STAAR data from 2019-2020 to compare to, STAAR data for 2020-2021 would be virtually useless. The solution is to let teachers be teachers, not test preparers." 

The worst-case scenario if STAAR is allowed to continue, according to Moore, is ending up with students who may be test-ready but have not truly received an education appropriate for their circumstances.

“The stress of having to deal with such an awkward and unprecedented situation is a very dangerous factor that will negatively affect the social-emotional health of children and of the professional health of educators,” he said.