The Texas Education Agency (TEA) still plans to hold the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams despite a growing chorus of opposition.
However, the TEA has announced the high-pressure, standardized tests will not be used to determine if a student will advance to the next grade level in 2021-22. Instead, districts will determine that through the traditional A-F grading score.
Tera Collum, executive director of the Travis Institute of Educational Policy, says that testing should be suspended for the school year. That’s a position several legislators from both political parties have taken, and a growing number of school districts also are calling on the state to waive the STAAR exams for 2020-21.
Tera Collum
| https://thetravisinstitute.org/
Collum says it is apparent the tests should not be held despite the TEA’s insistence.
“Absolutely not,” she told Education Daily Wire. “Students were taken out of their routine last school year. Many have experienced anxiety and stress related to school as well as at home, meaning that the STAAR will not be a priority to them.”
The STAAR tests were not administered in the spring, as the state requested and received a waiver from the federal government on the exams. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread, education was just another area that was severely disrupted, Collum says.
“Many students did not take the spring semester seriously, causing them to fall behind,” she said. “This year is already starting off with high levels of anxiety. Also, students tend not to learn well when their basic needs are not met. It is basic Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Students will continue to fall behind and will not get caught up.”
The outcry against STAAR includes the voices of the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA). TSTA President Ovidia Molina said the state is moving in the right direction but needs to go further.
“We are glad the governor suspended the promotion requirements for fifth and eighth graders that are tied to STAAR scores for the upcoming school year, but he didn’t go far enough,” Molina said on July 27. “STAAR testing will still be wasteful and stressful at a time when teachers, students and their parents are stressed out enough over a deadly pandemic.
“The governor needs to also suspend the A-F school accountability system and the T-TESS teacher appraisal system for the coming school year,” she continued. “They also are heavily tied to STAAR scores. And while he is at it, he should just suspend STAAR testing for 2020-21, period. It is a distraction that students and teachers don’t need while they learn a new education-delivery system, and it is an expense that taxpayers can ill-afford.”
Collum believes that giving the standardized tests could cause great harm this year.
“The test is already one to two grade levels above the grade they are testing,” she said. “If students fall behind due to COVID, then they will not have a good outcome on the assessment. This could start a downward spiral for those students and their learning. Students deserve to enjoy learning, the STAAR and standardized testing in general takes that away.”
Collum says she founded the Travis Institute of Educational Policy, which is based in Bedford, because she was “frustrated” that teachers did not have a stronger voice on educational issues. The organization’s goal is to help develop better teachers, ensuring their future and impacting policy.
“Our mission is clear: To improve the education of all Texas students and empower teachers with support, education and guidance,” the institute’s website states. “Whatever it takes, we will be here to stand by the teachers of Texas.”
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