State Of Texas Assessments Of Academic Readiness Or Staar

Standardized tests are largely unnecessary, ineffective, and overused. Despite the enormous monetary resources and hours that companies pour into the making of standardized tests, the unholistic pen and pencil approach of these tests tends to assess students' test-taking ability rather than their actual intelligence. All this new testing leaves less time for classroom learning than generations past. This time may seem negligible at first; however, it adds up considering the number of ACTs, SATs, graduation and annual state tests students take over their academic career. What little time left is sacrificed for busy work and teaching for the tests. Nevertheless, who can blame teachers when the results of standardized tests determine their job performance? The tests were mainly designed to showcase the efforts of teachers and schools to the state, and a reduction of standardized tests is integral to fixing our educational

According to education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, these tests are not helping the child. They’re hurting them. He knows that teacher need to show off what their students know, but he just doesn't understand why we have to do these tests. He can tell by his work that more than half of kids have an anxiety toward testing. The student may know a lot, but will freeze during the test. “Standardized testing can create a lot of stress for both educators and students. Excellent teachers quit the profession every day because of how much stress is on them. Students especially feel the pressure when there is something meaningful tied to them. In Oklahoma, high school students must pass four standardized tests in various areas, or they do not earn a diploma, even if their GPA was a 4.00. The stress this can cause on a teenager is not healthy in any way,” he states. His plan is to show people that this is a wrong thing to do and is unhealthy for both educators and the

Only recently with the addition of the Common Core Standardized Tests, students are being faced with more tests than ever. A typical student takes 112 mandated standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and 12th grade (Study says standardized...). In my opinion, the complexities of these tests are inclining to a degree where they are unreachable to the average student. These tests are an unreliable measure of performance with unfair instruction time. Student anxiety and stress has become so awful that the Standford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do in case a student vomits on the test. While the tests are there for students skill-measurement scores, they aren’t the only one’s who need to prepare for the exam. Teachers are equally pressured by their overhead figures to insure student’s score well. Just like the students, standardized tests are an imprecise measure of teacher performance, yet they are used to reward and punish teachers. Teachers are being required to a more progressive teaching style with emphasize on reflective learning. The effects of this are being nicknamed “drill and kill” test prep. Developing a corresponding curriculum prior to these assessments can be tricky because of the ambiguous content the Common Core requires. A considerable majority of these tests are given to students online. These already pricey tests come at an expensive cost for schools. An underlining problem people are concerned about is declining student scores being used as an excuse to close public schools that already can’t afford for the computers to take the test, and open more voucher

Most of the Nation does not like STAAR, or standardized tests. The reason is because most of all the students on the day of the test are completely stressed out, and worried about not succeeding. The STAAR is really a waste of time to me, but let’s NOT listen to me. Let me tell you some interesting facts I found. STAAR more than triples exit-level test load for high school students. “TAKS only required 4 final tests for high school graduation. By the STAAR, a student must pass 15 final tests, making it triple the high-stakes testing load for Texas.”

“With the implementation of the new STAAR testing system in Texas, there has been an outcry from some parents, educators, and commentators that the state places too much emphasis on standardized testing.” This statement from the Texas Business Leadership Council really stuck out to me in doing my research. In my opinion, this testing system puts too much stress on students. It seems to me that in some cases, students end up worrying more about the STAAR test, instead of what really matters in the meantime, like classwork, or actually learning the topic that is being taught at the time.

2010 report by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, over 17% of Houston teachers ranked in the top category on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills reading test were ranked among the two lowest categories on the equivalent Stanford Achievement Test. The results "were based on the same students, tested in the same subject, at approximately the same time of year, using two different tests." (Sean P. Corcoran, "Can Teachers be Evaluated by Their Students' Test Scores? Should They Be? The Use of Value-Added Measures of Teacher Effectiveness in Policy and Practice” (676 KB) pdf logo, www.annenberginstitute.org, 2010) Another important part of the No Child Left Behind Act was that teachers’ performance was going to be measured based on standardize tests taken by their students. While this may sound like a fair deal teachers should not be held accountable for annual progress as a child’s education is both responsibility of both teachers and parents. Many people would argue that it is a teacher’s job to teach because they are getting paid. However we as parents need to have in mind that we cannot give all responsibility to the teachers as learning should happened at school as well as at home. We as parents need to provide our children and their teachers the correct tools to make out children successful in their education. We cannot expect teachers to do all the job when parents and teachers should be working together to help our children succeed. Some

In an attempt to create educational reform, pieces of legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) have been passed with the hopes of making schools “accountable” to the children within their walls. Although this piece of legislation was eventually overturned its effects are still being felt within Americas public schools and it is estimated that this generation will be less literate than their precursors (Kohn). Although well intentioned, the NCLB failed schools, teachers, and most importantly students all as a result of one key aspect of the law: high-stakes testing. According to the No Child Left Behind act, all states are required to give standardized tests to their students in the hopes of holding teachers accountable for their scores and ensuring all students become “proficient.” These tests have come to determine whether or not students can graduate, how and what teachers teach, as well as how much funding a school will receive. High-stakes tests can make or break a school, but with all this pressure are kids really showing sizable gains in areas like math, science, or reading? The answer is no and time and time again

Standardized testing has lowered student achievement in the past several years. “The US has slipped from 18th in the world in math in 2002, to 31st place in 2009” (Walker). Something needs to be done, because a good education is how Americans succeed. American children are losing a battle with education because of these high stakes testing. The original purpose of the tests is “to ensure that all children have a fair and equal opportunity to obtain high-quality education at minimum proficiency on State standards” (“Title I - Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged”). But, the test anxiety is becoming more prevalent, and is keeping students from performing their best (Kohn).

Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation. Finneran (2002) defines the legislation as a way “to ensure that poor minority students are being educated to meet the same standards as all other students” (page 42). The legislation put forth the effort to attempt to level out the inequality found in minority students. Further, the legislation made “all schools accountable for providing adequate education to all students” in an effort to better equip students who were lacking proper and accountable education (Finneran, 2002, page 42). Standardized testing has a sole focus on scores and attempts to accurately measure how well students have learned the content and understand the required material. While standardized testing can be useful in gauging an overall understanding of how students are doing in regards to the curriculum being taught, but the question is then raised of what are the real priorities when it comes to standardized testing and are they reasonable. If a school is aiming to see progress from one year to the next on standardized test another may be seeking to maintain the distinction of having obtain acceptable or commendable test scores. Lewis (2003) draws attention to distinction of “raising test scores” or “providing opportunities which will help lift individuals out of poverty” and where the importance truly lies (page 58). Lewis states a true occurrence due

In recent years, Texas education has endured several rounds of reform, advancing, stumbling, bobbing and weaving, attempting to rebound, only to receive another jab at new curriculum standards or a punch in the gut of high school dropout rates. While valiant efforts have been made to generate highly motivated, well-organized, effective classrooms, several rifts remain. New programs, implemented to fight off the fatigue of reform, have only added to the burden, for the 2013 Nation’s Report Card outlines Texas success compared to the nation, revealing the number of Texas public schools with scores reaching “Proficient” stand below the national average, a still narrow 34%, and Texas math scores lag behind as

The biggest debate in education right now is whether or not standardized testing is beneficial or harmful to the educational needs of students. Teachers today feel that standardized testing has become excessive and is impeding the learning process of today’s students. However, legislators feel that standardized testing is imperative to the assessment of the achievement gap. Research suggests that excessive standardized testing is negatively impacting schools because of its emphasis on accountability and not on learning achievement, the ramifications it’s having on teachers, and the added stress and pressure it has placed on students.

Like Dr. Robert O’ Connor of Marble Falls Independent School District Superintendent also say’s “some student’s aren’t geared towards time standardized testing –it’s not where they shine “(HILLEY-SIERZCHULA 109-112). With students supposed to be taught to shine, we have to talk about the results themselves the scores within Austin Area Schools and Statewide in Texas the scores of children in elementary schools, which is where it all begins and at their ages seems to have the most impact on our children. With scores that are staying the same for the past three years, and showing Texas overall scores are dropping in subjects and within certain

A school district’s ability to prepare students to be college and career ready is evaluated based upon standardized testing (William, 2010). Even as standardized testing has been the focus of a great deal of discussion and controversy in recent years regarding the validity of using standardized test scores to determine student proficiency, such tests have become more important as mandates such as No Child Left Behind required the use of standardized tests to determine if school districts are adequately educating their students (Kim & Sunderman, 2005). Researchers have noted that the reliance on standardized testing as a measure of how well school districts and their teachers are educating students has resulted in administrators and teachers changing their practices in order to achieve higher test scores (Supovitz, 2009). School administrators and teachers have placed much more focus on the actions that they can take in order to increase standardized test scores (Sink, 2003).

Associations to which test specialists belong agree that the validity standard depends on the test’s context and it’s used. A test may be validated for some uses and not others (Smith et al., 2000). McDonnell (1997) found that the political community believed the benefits of the assessment policy would outweigh any harm that might be caused by less than reliable or invalid tests. Some may wonder why teaching to the test is not a good practice and a healthy basic skills emphasis. They may even suggest that teaching to the test results is basic instruction even in the least advantaged educational situations. Research indicates that there is little evidence to indicate that high-stakes accountability testing and reform have had much impact on overall school performance beyond increased scores on the individual test that was the instrument of the state policy (Mehrens, 1998). Theory validity of TAAS fell short of professional standards in other ways: While Texas scores on the math part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have risen dramatically—the results, perhaps, of all that drill and test practice—Texas students made only small gains in the NAEP reading test between 1992 and 1998, no gain what so ever between 1993 and 1996 on nationally normed achievement tests in reading, and not much gain in other subjects…They have not made much gain on the SAT, either (Schrag, 2000).Since 1999, Texas has begun to administer the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam and has continued to follow the high stakes consequences for failing the tests at the 3, 6 and 10th grades. This current test battery has been said to be more difficult than the earlier basic skills exams. One result of the wide use of exams to measure student achievement has been the growth of alternative education. The website for the Texas

Students and educators spend too much time on the STAAR test. Schools spend too much time preparing for middle-of-the-road exams, especially at low performance schools where students could use better teaching (Garland). Most schools are only worried about teaching students the curriculum they need to learn for the STAAR test, and not more about what they need to learn for their future lives. A few watchers have realized that educating data by the test centers the educational modules on vital substance and aptitudes dispenses with exercises that don't deliver learning picks up, and dives instructors and understudies to allow more exertion (“Do Standardized Tests”). Students are under a lot of stress because they have so much homework. Teachers give students homework almost every night because they have so many lessons they need to teach to