Workforce Commissioner: Education Testing System is Broken
Texas Workforce Commissioner Tom Pauken said Thursday that the state's current public education accountability system is "broken and badly in need of fixing."
During testimony at a hearing of the House Committee on Economic and Small Business Development on career and technology education, the former state GOP chairman expressed his disagreement with a coalition of business leaders and a conservative think tank that announced Wednesday it would oppose any additional funding to public education if there were any rollback of existing accountability standards.
Pauken, who along with two other commissioners oversees the development of the state's workforce ...
Comments (9)
Susie Martinez-Dominguez via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Really? It took this long to realize this? Oh, I guess nobody asked a teacher. Figures
hans5162@ix.netcom.com hans
Paulken is right. Testing has gone overboard and learning is suffering. The goal of testing is to undermine public support for public education. Give students the SAT or ACT and base their accountability on that. Paulken is right. It's about time sane conservatives stood up to the crazies that have taken over the Republican party, including the whack-job in the Governor's office and Bill Hammond. How does withholding funds for education improve it, just because you want ever more testing. We're spending $100 million dollars a year on testing, while we're cutting $5.4 billion dollars for everything else. We could put a lot of teachers in the classroom for $100 million.
Donald Worsham via Texas Tribune on Facebook
As a teacher just let me say AMEN!
Ed Calhoun via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I have been saying this for years. They don't teach the subjects, they teach them how to pass tests.
Milton Bell via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Finally, someone gets it right!
Alice Taylor
Mr. Pauken, you are my hero.
Thank you for saying the testing emperor has no clothes. Thank you for saying the truth that the elitist testing nightmare that Bill Hammonds is advocating where every child in Texas is going to be "college ready" is hurting our working class kids who have no intentions of going to college but who need a high school diploma and need good trade skills so that they can work (and often make more money than the college grads). Thank you for advocating for ALL of Texas' kids, not just the top 10% who are going to college.
Thank you for advocating for our future plumbers, practical nurses, medical technicians, computer repairmen, graphics designers, florists, ag techs, electricians, cooks, retailers and everyone else that makes life livable for college graduates like me. They can live without me, but I can't live without them.
Proud Texan
Hmmm, the guy who actually helps oversee Texas' workforce disagrees with TAB who has dues paying members asking them to advocate on their behalf. This looks like a clear case of Texas students, parents and schools versus Pearson and their mouthpiece TAB.
joe elder
You need to do your research starting at the public school level rather than college level. The students you are referring to are unable to do the work. In some cases the work and tests are so advanced it's above their head. Do some school research in the small town lower income areas and then think about it.
julian heilig
See UT-Austin students weigh in on the debate at http://cloakinginequity.com/2012/10/05/career-and-tech-show-me-the-money/