Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano and his family. | JeffLeach.com
State Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) has joined the movement toward waiving the high-stakes academic accountability ratings of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam through May 2021 after Gov. Greg Abbott suspended the controversial testing program for the recent school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leach tweeted a letter he wrote to Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath on July 9, applauding the plan to reopen schools in the fall and requesting that districts be allowed and empowered to adopt their own assessments.
“While I believe the assessment is a vitally important tool to gauge where our students and staff and teachers are on their educational journey, I likewise contend that any assessment tool utilize must be free of any penalty or other punitive conditions for the students, teachers or our school districts,” he wrote in the letter. “It has become increasingly clear to me that the right direction at the immediate time is to suspend all requirements, accountability, measures, and metrics related to the STAAR test for the foreseeable future and certainly for the 2020-21 school year.”
As previously reported in the Lone Star Standard, STAAR exam results are used to evaluate performance in reading, writing, math, science and social studies for 3rd- through 12th-grade students but the coronavirus has caused inconsistent student participation and other virtual learning deficiencies. The plague has been on the rise throughout the state in recent months.
As of July 30, there were 412,107 coronavirus cases and 6,247deaths, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services COVID-19 dashboard.
"We gotta be lightening, loosening the grip, not tightening it on state testing,” Leach told CBS 19. “It’s a perfect opportunity for us to rethink STAAR altogether.”
The TEA decided to proceed with STAAR testing for students in the 2020-2021 academic year, according to media reports.
Scott Moore, a Conroe ISD board member, told Education Daily Wire that he believes the main driver for TEA to continue pushing STAAR is financial and that the STAAR vendor stands to make a lot of money if the test continues while the TEA stands to lose a lot of money it does not honor its contractual obligations with the vendor.
The TEA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Leach joins the Wichita Falls Independent School District, Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Denton), Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Travis), Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van), the Conroe Independent School District, Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano), Rep. Keith Bell (R-Forney) and others in announcing their support for waiving accountability ratings along with teachers and parents.
Teachers for Texas has begun circulating a petition and an Opt-Out Texas Facebook group helps parents demand that their children not be subjected to STAAR requirements.
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