The Texas Legislature will decide whether to require school systems to give a mandatory standardized test online. | Canva
A report from the Texas Education Agency states that requiring all state public school students to take a standardized test online by 2022 could cost local school districts millions of dollars.
The Texas Tribune, which cited the TEA report, states that school districts will have to spend about $4 million collectively to improve internet service and then $13.4 million for staff training and bandwidth expansion. That would allow all students, except those with disabilities who might need paper tests, to take the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) online.
By contrast only 13% of STARR tests were taken online in 2018-2019, the Tribune reported.
Texas legislators will decide this session whether to require that the be taken online statewide.
In a 2019 opinion column in Texas Monthly, Sen. Joseph José Menéndez (D-San Antonio) sharply criticized the STAAR test.
“I believe harm is being done with the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness [STAAR] high-stakes testing,” he wrote. “I have asked Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath to provide me with feedback on concerns that have been raised by researchers regarding whether the tests are grade-level appropriate.”
The test doesn’t align with state guidelines in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills that teachers use in the classroom, the senator said.
“Because STAAR is written two to three grade levels beyond the grade levels of the students being tested, the STAAR is assessing student knowledge inconsistent with TEKS guidelines that tell teachers how to educate their students to read,” Menéndez wrote. “How can we expect students and teachers to prepare for a test that challenges them with material written beyond the enrolled grade level, and without providing an appropriate educational experience focusing on those very standards?”
In fall 2016, 71% of Texas students who took the English I STAAR test failed, Texas Monthly reported.
“I had kids drop out because they didn’t see light at the end of the tunnel,” Cynthia Ruiz, a former high school English teacher in Pflugerville, north of Austin, told Texas Monthly. “Not one college or employer looks at these scores, and we are spending millions of dollars on them. And for what?”
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