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On Thursday, Dec. 10, the TEA announced that they will suspend the A-F accountability system for schools in the state of Texas due to COVID-19. They would however, still administer the STAAR test to students to check their progress and see how much damage had been done by the pandemic, subsequent lockdowns, and virtual learning regimes.
When asked if I thought it was a good idea to administer the STAAR this year, the simple answer was no. Let me explain.
The education system in general is broken. The A-F accountability system is broken and has loopholes that allow districts to mask issues. Finally, the STAAR test is broken…very broken. How can we give students an assessment that is flawed and expect accurate results? Why are we going to give an assessment that will cost MILLIONS of dollars just to find out what teachers already know? Students are behind.
Tera Collum
| Provided
Why is it that degreed and trained professionals are not being treated like professionals when dealing with the students that they watch over all year long? Teachers know their students. They know what has happened over the past year. They know about student’s home life. Rather than require the STAAR, simple, on-campus testing could show the same information and that information could be given to a state data base. Not to mention that a campus generated assessment could be more holistic in nature and take multiple levels of class work to go towards the student’s grade.
All the state needs to know is that a student is behind and by how much. We should not put the students into even a more stressful year but telling them that they have to sit for the STAAR.
This pandemic has been history making. The effects of it will last for some time. Some traditions will fade from memory because they are deemed too dangerous. Maybe the STAAR needs to be a victim of the COVID pandemic as well.
Students will be learning differently for a few years. The STAAR will not be able to correctly assess a student that is learning remotely or on hybrid model. It will take time to adjust the paradigm of learning. Right now, students, teachers and parents are going off muscle memory of learning, and it is not working. Once we have adjusted to a new normal or a new mindset towards learning, perhaps then would be the best time to look at mass assessment.
We cannot hold teachers, schools, and districts accountable for scores when they do not have absolute control over the input and outcome. Mass assessment will only work if all stock holders have equal accountability. That means, teachers, administrators, students and parents. Until then, we need to stop with the useless standardized testing and accountability system. Stop the needless judgement of things that are out of the school district’s realm of control. Just stop.
Tera Collum is the founder of Teachers for Texas, an initiative of the Travis Institute of Educational Policy
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