Texas Schools Foot Big Bill for STAAR Retakes
The school year ended the first week of June for most Texas students, but for hundreds of thousands of them, it won’t mean the end of class.
Because of low scores on the state’s new end-of-course exams, or EOCs, many incoming 10th-graders will have to retake them in July, landing them in summer classes to prepare — and leaving school districts with a hefty bill.
This year, the scores on the exams don’t count toward high school students’ final grades or toward school districts’ accountability ratings. But a requirement that students retake a test if they do not ...
Comments (10)
Proud Texan
Can you say "un-funded mandate" from Austin? Classic.
Donna Mitchell MacKinney via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Unfair, yes. Surprising, no.
Mike Openshaw via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This comes form education's decision to 'teach the test', NOT the longer but more permanent answer of teaching the foundational knowledge to actually PASS ANY test. Test architecture needs no more than a couple hours of instruction.
Dave S
I'm disappointed the article almost entirely left out the one of the biggest idiocies of STARR - the results do not come in until summer, 2-3 months after they were taken.
On another note, I am disappointed in Ms Schultz, who despite her involvement, apparently knows little about the state of education. She says "It's hard to believe that 55 percent of ninth-graders all of a sudden became bad writers". Visit many lower income schools and read some of their writing, and you might be surprised that ANY pass.
Judy Burns via Texas Tribune on Facebook
As someone who just taught 2 courses at a 4 year university, one wonders what these tests are teaching or accomplishing. These students did not know basic grammar. They did not know what constitutes a sentence. They did not know how to make a word such as 'community' plural. They have been tested over and over- much more than my generation was tested. If they cannot communicate in writing, what is the point?
David Spratt
Bonuses for teachers doing something the second time around ,,, that should have happened the first time? If these Kids went to school for 9 months and could not pass ,,, what good will 13 more days do at many times the cost of holding regular school? If anyone had really been paying attention they would have known ahead of time over half of them would not pass, have they not been handing in work all year long that is substandard , or is this just a one time event?
GS Crispus
Stop being stupid Openshaw. Please. Conservatives cannot be this ignorant.
You cannot teach to a test that has not been released. In fact, what few released questions were released, in some case cases, had curriculum that is not even in the Texas standards.
Greg Pulte via Texas Tribune on Facebook
it's a moneymaking scam.
Suzy Stone via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Follow the money ...
tr wilson
"Texas Schools Foot Big Bill for STAAR Retakes" What that really means is your property taxes are being used to fund retakes. Texas spend over 90 million on testing. Does anyone think this is really about student education? I don't it's about business and profiteering. David Spratt
"Bonuses for teachers doing something the second time around " Do you really think teachers decide what to teach? What to teach comes from the state. Also if you are a principal and your job relies on good test scores, what will you force teachers to do? Judy Burns you do not have to worry about what the test accomplishes. The tests do not accomplish anything except cost the taxpayers money. It' business
making money. Why do you think Texas Association of Business is threatening not to support any increase in funding for public school. Because their members are businesses making money off taxpayers. All companies doing business with school district should provide goods and services at cost as part of their contribution to society. If that was law we would really is what is important.