House Bill on Student Testing Reopens a Familiar Debate
When Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, brought House Bill 500 to the Texas House floor on April 6, he emphasized what it did not do.
It did not, he said, lower testing standards. Nor did it delay the planned 2011-12 rollout of the state’s more rigorous STAAR exams.
Eissler was setting out to correct what he called the “misrepresentations” and “false claims” surrounding the bill, which, despite its overwhelming support in the House — more than two-thirds of his colleagues signed on to it, and only five voted against it — has generated vocal opposition from some within education circles who ...
Comments (5)
Mary Lynn VanZandt Neill via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Sorry I can't be a fly on that wall!
Sam Reeves
The State of Texas is setting students up to drop out. In lower socioecomic districts, we have students who have no support at home. I can see students getting to their junior year having to pass 7-8 tests and they will simply say, "No way" and quit! What the state should do is fund vocational schools and let those who want to go to college be taught at that level. Other countries such as Austria have done it successfully. I don't know why we can't do that and do away with all this high stakes testing and save a fortune that we pay to Pearson. I teach in a medium size 2A high school and have seen the pressure that students, teachers, and administrators feel every year about this time. With STARR and EOC's, its only going to get worse.
Jim Haley via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We seriously need to postpone STAAR and EOC for two years.
teach_j
We don't need to postpone the STARR test - we need to fully fund education, so that we have enough teachers to teach every student in Texas PK-12. This is just one of the side effects of underfunding one of the most important mandates our state constitution places before the legislature. ". . . it shall be DUTY OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools" (Article 7, Texas Constitution) They are not owning up to their responsibilities.
Marcus Cunningham via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The STAAR tests are the best thing to happen to the TX education system. We are talking about students taking tests that come from what they should be learning! If we can't get them to acheive an avg. passing grade on those tests, then I have no hope for this state.