Our Public School Testing, Accountability System Needs Reform
Schools and testing go hand in hand. We test and grade students to ensure mastery of the content and preparation for the next grade, for college, and for careers. The State of Texas’ testing and accountability system has too long been a point of contention and controversy. Our students, our teachers, our schools, and our taxpayers deserve better.
It’s time for the state to get testing and accountability right.
Today, the State of Texas relies on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and, for high school, End of Course exams to gauge student and school progress and success.
Results shared by the Texas Education Agency this summer show Texas students bouncing back strong from a COVID pandemic, a credit to the hard work of our classroom teachers and the students themselves.
Students’ reading and math scores on the state’s STAAR assessment improved over last year, and even better news is that many grades saw reading scores above pre-pandemic levels. But, that good news shouldn’t mask a deeply flawed testing and accountability system in need of reform.
Assessments can be valuable tools to better inform instruction, help teachers address gaps in students’ learning, provide diagnostic tools to meet individual student needs and track student academic growth over time.
That’s not what the state’s required testing does today. Instead, our state places entirely too much emphasis on one test given on one day to grade our public schools’ and students’ performance. The use of a single test to grade a campus, a teacher, or a student fails to look holistically at the many factors that contribute to educational success. End of Course exams for high school students are another form of high-stakes testing that results in one test, on one day to determine if a student can graduate.
We need a system that doesn’t grade schools on a single test. Such a system, as our current A-F accountability system, simply doesn’t provide meaningful data or perspective on how our schools are doing to prepare students for their future.
Texas can create a robust accountability system that uses tests to help guide academic decisions, without making it the sole focus of that accountability system.
We need to make such reform a focal point of lawmakers’ work at the Capitol next year.
Our students and our schools are such an integral part of our state’s long-term vibrancy, strength and, success. We owe it to them and to all of us to get this right.
Keith Bell of Forney is a member of the Texas House of Representatives and serves on the House Public Education Committee.
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