North Texas lawmaker files bill to abolish Texas Education Agency, calls for ending STAAR test
Posted by Equivalent_Road5788@reddit | Dallas | View on Reddit | 144 comments
TheRealSnick@reddit
Well, yeah. Standardized testing is terrible, especially when everything you have to teach is solely to pass a test.
DimensionQuirky569@reddit
Wasn't standardized testing the result of the No Child Left Behind Act? I feel like them abolishing the STARR test and standardized testing is probably a good thing considering the long-term effects of what the No Child Left Behind Act did and the resulting standardized testing.
Stepjam@reddit
Getting rid of the STAAR isn't a bad idea. The heavy focus on standardized testing isn't great.
The problem is, can we really trust current republicans to replace it with something better? When they'd rather focus on voucher programs for charter schools and cutting free breakfasts and lunches for students from low income families who otherwise might eat? Since every fucking thing has to be focused around profit margins?
I certainly don't.
DimensionQuirky569@reddit
Yeah, I agree. Usually with things like these, there always has to be an ulterior motive. They could be removing standardized testing for another reason that'll benefit them and just completely leave us in the dust. They'll probably implement religious tests instead.
NYerInTex@reddit
It’s the worst thing except for the alternative.
Certainly this alternative.
Curious when this catches up and really effects the business climate
DependentAd235@reddit
The SAT is a great predictor of college success. More than grades.
That’s most due to how inconsistent/bad Education is than how good SATs are.
Should keep tests though. Only thing keeping schools honest.
PineappleP1992@reddit
The SAT is a decent predictor of first-year GPA. Grades have a stronger correlation with overall success
Ignaciodelsol@reddit
Teachers spend up 1/3rd of their school entire class time on how to take these exams or proctoring the exams. The results are rarely different than if you just compare them to zip code wealth. It’s a phenomenal undertaking that tells us what we basically already know and costs a fortune to reading, administer and review the exams.
They are also often used to determine school budgets so low performing schools are forced to cut all extra curricular and force to spend all day in math and English which is making maids HATE school and not care when they see articles about funding being cut.
I have a lot of thoughts about these that I haven’t ever really written down or said out loud before so apologies if this sounds a little angry or crazy but I needed to vent
NYerInTex@reddit
Let me be clear - HOW we test is generate terrible. Teaching TO a test and a system that supports that is a bad system.
NO testing standards is a worse idea. All the more so in a state hell bent on denying schooling for communities with the least economic means / political empowerment
DrCarabou@reddit
We can't measure their academic decline if we don't test for it!
LevelDry5807@reddit
Schools are motivated to have high standards for their students. This test lowers the bar and actually creates false sense of accomplishment. It’s silly. Everyone knows it doesn’t work. If someone let go of measuring every little thing it would benefit students. The alternative is what private schools do with the standardized testing. They don’t
NYerInTex@reddit
I’m not suggesting STAAR is a good program.
I’m suggesting what’s next is almost assuredly far worse. And intentionally so.
Cruelty is, after all, the point.
LevelDry5807@reddit
I disagree. Let school leaders run good schools. It works for business and high school sports . And yes private schools. They are doing the alternative
-Nocx-@reddit
Treating schools like a business is literally why universities have ballooning tuition costs now. Ten years ago - my Alma mater - Texas A&M began working double time to slam more butts into chairs because that’s what ultimately produces the highest ROI. 25 by 2025 they said.
Fast forward to today, and for the average engineering student, 25 by 2025 was an abject failure. They’ll argue they graduated “more engineering majors” - I’ll argue that they kicked a ton of people out of the major they wanted to backfill less desirable majors. They didn’t have enough resources when I finished my CS degree there - they most certainly do not now. It was fueled entirely by trying to run the university “like a business” - which clearly it is not and should never be. They’re now trying to reduce head count and boost faculty salary to “fix” their oopsie.
This stupidity has already put a college degree out of reach for many Americans - there’s no need to extend it to public schooling.
LevelDry5807@reddit
That’s fine. Great points. Seems pretty posoible that there are some parts of running a business that public schools can adopt . Sure you can argue there are some things that they should not. The idea that what they are doing is effective and headed in the right direction is patently false. Any alternative thought I give is shot down here with the fervor of 1000 suns. Where the systems is as a whole, in inner cities needs a philosophical overhaul. When I say this every point or reason I give is shot down. Spend some time in an actual inner city district. Not talking about but actually working in it. You will talk differently I would imagine
NYerInTex@reddit
You are equating businesses, whose mission is profit with schools who mission is educating children.
Oof.
LevelDry5807@reddit
There are in fact private schools. Universities. They educate without standardized testing. Business also are not measured by some created measurement system . I am in fact, comparing businesses and education, and by the way, no one in business is looking at the procedures. We use education and saying that’s a good idea. Maybe we should do that
MoeKneeKah@reddit
Businesses aren’t measured by created measurements? You must not actually work in business, because there are tons of metrics for business. Debt vs income. Income vs expenses. Payroll vs income. EBIT. And EVERYONE in business looks at procedures. They analyze SOPs annually and make changes based on those metrics you think don’t exist. Just stop, you’re obviously speaking out of your sphincter and you’re head is so far up there only dogs can hear
LevelDry5807@reddit
I have to say what you’ve said is very compelling. In a room, trying to get something done you’d be formidable and an asset. You’d have no place in public education. These things you describe all are incredibly intertwined and tied to the success of real companies. Makes sense. Slide on over to an inner city school. Find me some of those same metrics . Metrics that an intellectual person would say oh wow that’s a valuable and worthwhile endeavor. I applaud in theory the fervor with which you and others take my opinion and throw it on the ground and noble up with philosophical facts about all of this.
I put my money where my mouth was and laced em up and entered an inner city district to make a difference. My perspective may be harder to hear or understand but I could tell you stories for days about that actually is happening.
Keep fighting the good fight. I respect your opinion. Mine isn’t a theory but based on years actually giving my best trying to make a difference with my boots on the ground
NYerInTex@reddit
Perhaps you could use a bit more - education…
Because you seem to utterly miss the point of comparing private institutions with those which must serve the public good and do not self select their student body. Not a good look here
LevelDry5807@reddit
It’s extremely disappointing to hear that my arguments do not meet the standards of a stranger on Reddit. I’m gonna have to pull myself together, but this may take a while. Let me put it to you another way the idea of measuring every single thing that a child does against an arbitrary standardcreated by an outside entity has been proven to be ineffective, especially for the populations. It is designed to help that is low income, low economic families that are basically being taught to pass a test that has no value at all to them as they move forward.
Shage111YO@reddit
It’s true! Rather than do the Clinton, no child left behind thing, let’s just do what private school do. Hire more teachers, have more classrooms, hire more cleaning personnel, and do away with the countless standardized tests. Simplify it down like the Europeans do to an 8th grade exam to establish a track toward blue or white collar and leave it at that. The problem is that if we don’t get the student to teacher ratio closer to private schools, the test is the crappy way of measuring where a kid tracks as the move along. Luckily all the Silicon Valley money is moving away from Democratic war chests since they have figured out that the H1B visa program can give them enough skilled engineers rather than supporting the constant test taking. Also, luckily we are supposedly bringing all these manufacturing jobs back due to tariffs so it won’t matter as much if larger percentages of kids go the blue collar track since they should have employers ready to hire them.
Problem is about reading the room. This is freaking nuts that both the federal and state governments (in red states) are moving so quickly because private corporations are NOT going to be able to keep pace with the dramatic shift in the type of American workforce. For decades we have been telegraphing to the market that America is largely white collar. Now, we are going to flush a lot of changes (much like the floods in North Carolina). When a flood comes, natural systems that had been in place are uprooted and many exterminated. There is just a complete lack of coordination even among party lines. If the federal government is flushing hard, maybe the state politicians slow it down a little bit. Nope, red state politicians know what gets re-elections. Something tells me they are going to fast and furious and a lot of people aren’t going to be able to keep pace.
LevelDry5807@reddit
You can go ahead and give yourself a point for establishing that public school is different than private school and in fact every district is different. The fact remains that an educational system much like a business is either effective or it does not and we can’t be afraid to say that a particular systemis not even ineffective. It’s broken and everyone involved at the ground root level recognizes that it isn’t working.
Shage111YO@reddit
They want a pool of labor who are uneducated to be enslaved go clean their resorts, boats, and multiple homes (public schooled kids), manufacture goods with their owned commodities, work on their oil rigs, cut down their trees, mine their coal, harvest their crops, AND they want cheap immigrant engineers to do all the work for a fraction of the cost so if they try to speak up they can immediately be deported. Right?
Any American born engineers either are so in debt that they become slaves to those corporations OR they are entrepreneurs, start their own businesses, get bought (become mid level managers), or finally take their company public and take the Tesla blueprint to heart.
Any American born doctors or lawyers are also slaves to their industry as they climb higher just so they can finally get their payday.
OR couldn’t we all notice that we have been destroying our middle class In order for the wealthy to get even wealthier?
I got an idea! Local politicians suggest a county tax addition where anyone in Dallas County agrees to bridge the gap for all of the financial shortcomings that are about to hit low/middle income families. This way we don’t need to worry about what the Federal or State governments are doing. We help our neighbors make Dallas a supportive community where we respect each other and foster strong education for everyone. This would help feed innovation for what is becoming a very populated metropolis which would translate into the best doctors, teachers, lawyers, engineers, police/fire, nurses, manufacturing, laborers, and skilled tradesmen. Wouldn’t that be something?
214forever@reddit
It won’t, we’ll just keep importing talent from states with better education systems as we always have
Ignaciodelsol@reddit
I hate when republicans stumble on the right answer for the wrong reasons
MonkeyDouche@reddit
I think we can all agree standardized testing isn’t great, but the difficult part is what’s the alternative? How can we objectively quantify the progression of a student without bias?
rgbRandomizer@reddit
I had a temp job about eight years ago grading standardized testing. The company selling the books provides the test. The people grading these test are all levels of education selected at random for the subject. The graders are then judged on how many test they score per hour. There are level of graders, so the lowest level gets test that have already been graded to make sure you are in line with the higher level grader. Basically a "master" grader, a mid level grader who manages about twenty graders. I have my BS in math, but was told to grade reading comprehension. The prompt was Black Beauty which I remember reading in school. It was pretty disheartening to grade papers with the idea that it doesn't matter if you think they understood.
While in college I tried to tutor at a private tutor place. The first thing I asked was do they have the text books of the local schools in the area (they did not). I spent most of my time helping little kids read, but was eventually fired because some kid told their parent I didn't know what I was doing. Yeah let me juggle ten kids without knowing what they are currently learning. I saw a kid get hit by a car out in front and told the owner to call the police. I kid you not her response was "I don't want to be involved."
probablypragmatic@reddit
On the fast track to create the first Christian Caliphate
zDedly_Sins@reddit
Based on what grounds? I would imagine parents have more of an impact on children’s education that school.
SadBit8663@reddit
Yeah when it's dumbass parents homeschooling their kids they do. Sure, but generally it's probably closer to 50/50 teacher-parent. And I've seen some of the parents that can't even teach their children basic life skills, because they don't have any
arlenroy@reddit
Exactly! Homeschooled kids are weird as fuck, with zero social skills, because they're not interactive with their peers on a daily basis. Classic example; there's an older interview with Billy Eilish, from Ellen I believe. Her first album is really taking off, Melissa Mccarthy is on the show, she's a big fan, really excited to talk to her. Billy Eilish is a super talented singer, incredibly successful, but also homeschooled. She talks in memes. Granted, she's about 17 or so, but she should still be able to converse, without referencing memes every sentence. Pretty fucking wild. If she wasn't a wildly talented singer, I have no idea what she would have done in life.
SadBit8663@reddit
I mean, my mom pulled me out of school for two years to homeschool me, for non crackpot reasons, and she had me back in public school in 2 years, the only reason i didn't fall behind grades wise, was the math tutor i had while being homeschooled, that kept me caught up.
As it was, i was one of those weird kids for a couple of years, because i was behind everyone socially for a couple of years.
I'm sure even that short time had a negative effect on me at the time, even though it was a mostly positive experience.
meestersi@reddit
Based on the fact that their voucher scam moves PUBLIC funds to private religious schools at almost twice the amount of public school rates. Based on Republican bills for 10 commandments in the classroom, Bible studies in the classroom, forced time for prayer, allowing counselor positions to be replaced with chaplains, etc. They received over 100 million from Christian nationalist West TX billionaires for campaign funding last election to remove anti-voucher Republicans.
Now replace all that with a push for forced reading of the Coran, Muslim curriculum for elementary reading, imams in the counseling office, and millions in funding from Saudi billionaire backers. You wouldn't see that as unconstitutional or ethically wrong? No, it would all suddenly become very clear to you how inappropriate and unconstitutional this all is. Church is for religious teaching and school is for academics (reading, waiting, arithmetic, etc.). Keep your Christian Caliphate out of the schools.
LiatKim@reddit
*Quran
meestersi@reddit
Oops, sorry.
MethanyJones@reddit
The average homeschool parent can't do basic math or diagram a sentence
VegasRanger@reddit
Genuinely curious but what are you basing this on?
WetWolfPussy@reddit
Every homeschooler parent you've ever met?
ALaccountant@reddit
And every homeschooled child
FMtmt@reddit
Neither can the average public school teacher
more_like_borophyll_@reddit
BULLSHIT.
street593@reddit
Did you not go through the Texas school system? I'm not saying every teacher is created equal but I had plenty of very intelligent teachers.
DeathByGoldfish@reddit
How many teachers do you actually know? Some of the smartest people I know are K-12 teachers.
Jonqbanana@reddit
This is a really smooth brain take. Nice job.
NotTomorrowTodayyy@reddit
Their brain is too smooth, your criticism will simply slide off
TemtCampingRick@reddit
Super Derp.
more_like_borophyll_@reddit
I’m not going to downvote you. If you asked your question in good faith: parents have more impact on what kind of person their child is. Values, morals, manners, etc… But to say parents can impact their child’s education more is to negate the teaching profession. Teachers go to school for years to learn about how the brain works, social dynamics among kids, how to run a classroom, and that’s on top of their academic expertise (humanities, etc…). And once they become a teacher there’s usually SO MANY hours of [unpaid] mandatory training.
To say that also assumes there’s a parent not working who can do this full time, because it is a full time job to educate your kids.
I’ll give a personal example: my kid was 4 going on 5 when the pandemic hit. Knew all the letters and sounds, and most recommended sight words. I couldn’t get them to understand sounding out words. I tried everything. My mom is a reading teacher. I’m educated enough. I looked up videos on how to teach this, I just couldn’t make it click for my kiddo.
We had a teacher friend come over and she did things like have her close her eyes and give my kiddo magnets in the shape of a letter, have her feel the letter and say what it is. And she did a few other things like that and boom - kiddo started sounding out words.
That’s just a personal anecdotal example of course.
I have another one where a dear friend did dedicate herself full time to her kids education, taught them at home, and they are successful wonderful grown people now.
Ultimately, strong, well funded, well organized, public education is good for the economy, mitigates crime, and enables kids socially to be part of our shared community/society. We can’t have that if we don’t have participation in the public school system.
US education does need oversight though - not more on the teachers, but on the administration. Start with superintendent salaries, start with who grants and contracts are awarded to, start with the structure before blaming teachers for any shortcomings.
TL;DR: no. Parents don’t have more of an impact on children’s education than educators do.
Direct_Marsupial5082@reddit
What other professions do you think can be done DIY in the house more competently than dedicated licensed supervised professionals?
Do you do dentistry on your own kids? How about paving the road in the cul demand sac? You feel comfortable operating the local dump?
zDedly_Sins@reddit
Don’t be stupid. We are talking about elementary- high school. They obviously have to attend university for that. There’s such thing as home schooling for a reason which the district helps with. The point is people need to step up in their children’s education and not have a state government teach their children on what they should believe. Tbh I’m Hispanic and people around here hire family members who know how to do trade stuff without a license because we are cheaper than those who do. Think before you type
spookyscaryskeletal@reddit
so I am from one of the lowest ranking states in education. there doesn't seem to be a lot of protection here for kids being homeschooled & looking into it there is very little regulation. can you links me to a source showing how the districts help? I'm having a hard time finding anything
zDedly_Sins@reddit
Plano Independent School District (PISD) offers resources for homeschooling students, including digital resources and a program for students who don’t have access to technology at home. Resources Home Resources: Includes information and resources to help students learn independently, including a list of digital resources Computers@Home: Provides a free home computer system to eligible students who don’t have technology at home HomeSchool PSAT/AP: Offers the PSAT/NMSQT test to homeschool students Programs eSchool: An online learning program for students in grades 9–12 to earn credits toward graduation QuEST Program: A program for current Plano ISD high school seniors Plano ISD Exploration: A summer learning program for students in grades 1–7.
isthereanyotherway@reddit
That's Plano ISD.. not every district has that. Also when funding is continually slashed and now will be siphoned off even more to private and homeschoolers, do you really think Plano is going to continue to provide those resources? They're literally closing schools bc enrollment is down bc we don't have enough young people with young kids moving here because we lack housing options and we have a butt ton of senior parents staying in their houses which keeps the homes from opening up for others, which keeps Plano ISD enrollment down. Please note many seniors are staying in their homes because they also cannot afford to just move out of their homes even if they want to downsize because homes are so unaffordable.
Plano ISD has a budget shortfall. They will continue to have to cut services, especially until the state increases the amount of money they spend on each child - which they haven't done in 6 years because Abbott has been holding the whole fucking state hostage regarding education and his voucher demands. And even once his previous vouchers are passed, they likely won't increase the per child dollar amounts to where they need to be. This state is consistently ranked poorly when it comes to education, and Abbott and his cronies have made it worse and worse.
Btw there's very, very little regulation on homeschooling your children in Texas. It's absolutely atrocious.
zDedly_Sins@reddit
The last Redditor asked for what district would do it. I answered the question
street593@reddit
Homeschooling is a bad idea 98% of the time. Parents are too dumb or too busy to give children the attention they need. Not to mention one person can't be an expert in every subject. That is why your chemistry teacher is different than your math teacher. It takes a whole village to educate a single child.
zDedly_Sins@reddit
That’s why they’re online schooling now. If you took time to see my response to someone else.
zDedly_Sins@reddit
I don’t understand why people on Reddit take everything to the extreme. Who this of this and says “yeah that will teach him” like common have some common sense here. There’s such things as virtual academy’s that are hosted by Dallas ISD.
DeathByGoldfish@reddit
You are 100% right. I have a friend whose wife has failed their kids miserably homeschooling them. They have a fourth grader who cannot read or write but the most common words and their name. Homeschooling is an insane responsibility and requires the right space to separate “home” from “school”, constantly enforcing boundaries, etc. Very few modern parents are actually cut out for it.
chicadeaqua@reddit
Yep. A guy I know pulled his kid from school “because woke indoctrination” and claims to have homeschooled her. She pulled a friend of mine aside at a party in tears because she got NO education. We helped her with resources for a GED and she was so overwhelmed I’m not sure she ever followed through. She told us she felt her parents ruined her life.
I’m sure many do a good job of it and use networks for curriculum and socialization-but I’m also sure there are a lot of kids having their lives sabotaged just because their parents don’t want them exposed to other points of view or that evil science. Make no mistake our state will focus on undermining and defunding universities next.
HeavyVoid8@reddit
You've apparently never had kids or been to school
zDedly_Sins@reddit
I don’t have kids, but I have attended schools in the Plano area actually and currently attending UNT so thanks for assuming
HeavyVoid8@reddit
You don't get much, do you lol
Dallas-ModTeam@reddit
Your comment has been removed because it is a violation of Rule #3: Uncivil Behavior
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zDedly_Sins@reddit
Get much of what? I guess you values someone’s life based on that. Sad
HeavyVoid8@reddit
Lmao bro that's not even remotely what i meant, but you just proved my point.
zDedly_Sins@reddit
So how I’m I proving your point if you weren’t remotely talking about that? Make sense for once
HeavyVoid8@reddit
I was insinuating that you have a difficult time understanding things, which you then had difficulty understanding. Breathe for once
zDedly_Sins@reddit
Well sure make fun of a minority. Sorry that I had to learn two languages when I was growing up.
HeavyVoid8@reddit
This is texas, everybody learned two languages
zDedly_Sins@reddit
You can’t assume that. Based what I’m seeing they target people based on their skin color and the language they speak
GalacticFartLord@reddit
You need a better imagination then my guy
zDedly_Sins@reddit
You need to get better sense of reality. It’s always been like this. That’s why we got Homework
Arrasor@reddit
And most parents are either too dumb or too rusty to even do the kids homeworks for them, let alone explain and teach them to their kids.
zDedly_Sins@reddit
Well that’s something I agree.
--Knowledge--@reddit
Lol what? Most Americans barely have an above room temperature IQ.
zDedly_Sins@reddit
So I guess based on your statement the IQ has dropped even more because of AI
TilTheDaybreak@reddit
Great, the geniuses are riffing with the future generations education on the line
BobbyBetc@reddit
Because we might get rid of a test that the overwhelming majority of teachers think is more detrimental than helpful?
OutrageousQuantity12@reddit
A caliphate is by definition a Muslim polity.
The phrase you’re looking for is the fourth reich of the Roman Empire
doink992000@reddit
I can’t believe someone actually mentioned it
Vegetable-Reward-852@reddit
Half right, shit can the star test.
ResidentJicama4051@reddit
Hmm, Texas already among the lowest in the course in terms of education. I'm in Texas and this is what we face
Hypolag@reddit
This is insanity. I can't believe people voted for this idiocy, I mean I can, but that doesn't make it any less blood boiling.
Talador12@reddit
The test is bad but Jesus do we need education
Zeal-A-Saurus@reddit
Which North Texas Orc brought this? Bought and paid for by the Radical EVANGELICAL Oil & Gas freaks.
lauraklupin@reddit
Keeping your kids stupid lmao
bobertmcmahon@reddit
To be fair, STAAR is pretty terrible, as is most standardized testing. Though I question what the alternatives would be.
Chemical_Fissure@reddit
Educator here:
The alternative should be a robust profile grading system, which should include some form of test like STAAR. Honestly, STAAR is robust and fairly well designed. With a few tweaks it’s worth keeping.
The problem is the importance placed on it—kids can’t graduate without passing (exceptions apply but still). Kids need more than one way to show proficiency—hence a portfolio system. These have been made before and we already have the infrastructure to do it.
Republicans don’t want that though. They want to beleaguer the system until it stumbles, then they can claim it’s broken and shut it down
isthereanyotherway@reddit
This is so accurate regarding Republicans on so many issues it's exhausting to think about. I loathe that people can't see through this bullshit of theirs. Granted a lot of the people voting for them aren't even aware R's are doing it because the news or their social media that they consume isn't telling them that they're doing this. So they just fall for their lies hook, line, and sinker without having the slightest idea that whatever the Republicans are talking about is failing, is due to them and their actions against said issue. "Let's defund public education for decades so we can then exclaim it's broken and then buy up the pieces and throw money at the new Christian schools!!! Brilliant!!!"
Chemical_Fissure@reddit
And, for a few, things will be significantly better—but only because they strangled the public system for so long. We could have it all, but they only want more
DrRickStudwell@reddit
They would be worse. They don’t want to improve they just want to control.
yeluapyeroc@reddit
They would be worse for some, and better for others
Shage111YO@reddit
Hire more teachers (which then require more classrooms), more buildings, cleaning crews. This way a teacher can actually engage with each student.
southpalito@reddit
The objective is to dismantle the entire public education system and gradually introduce a series of segregated for-profit private schools and religious schools managed by churches. There will be new industry of student loans to pay for elementary to high school education.
CrimsonAllah@reddit
Idk, being ranked 43rd in the nation for education seems like a change up in how we’re doing things is probably a smart idea rather than continuing to backside (previously we were 39th),
thatonepac@reddit
How dare you bring up a rational answer. They're trying to make kindergarteners pay student loans!!
CrimsonAllah@reddit
I guess defending a downward spiral is a superior option given the state of Texas’ education. To everyone who downvoted me, remember that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
chayatoure@reddit
Stop being obtuse. The sentiment in this thread is not that the current system is good, but getting rid of a bad system for a much worse one isn’t a good option either. Maybe, we should stop letting republicans dictate education policy — that’s the insanity, trusting them to anything good for the majority.
CrimsonAllah@reddit
You’re in a republican ran state. If you want something else you have the freedom to travel.
street593@reddit
Maybe we should look at the states that are at the top and figure out what they are doing differently? I imagine it's not dismantling the public school system.
Key-Teacher-2733@reddit
TEA is questionable at times, and STAAR is the worst. That being said, I'm terrified of what would be put in their place.
Existing-Net5672@reddit
Standardized testing is useless.
Accomplished-Menu741@reddit
They’ll never know our kids are dumb if they don’t test em! Now that we got rid of DEI, we can get back to dumb white dudes getting all the great jobs, just like white Jesus declared it should be when he wrote the declaration of constitution.
JustMyThoughts2525@reddit
At my highschool in Texas, my teachers were only concerned with the students passing standardized test. It was fun in math, but it was terrible for English.
For the English classes, all papers that students completed had to include specific types of sentences and paragraph structures on all papers. The actual content and critical thinking didn’t matter.
Dragooncancer@reddit
Yeah, I teach middle school English and it sucks. Curriculum used to be decent, but with the addition of short/extended constructed responses in STAAR that’s ALL we ever seem to do. I try to make it fun but we’re told to stick with curriculum.
I once asked at professional development about the basic hypocrisy of being told to not teach to the test, but then follow a curriculum that is basically teaching to the test… I was told the curriculum isn’t teaching to the test, it’s backwards design from the test. 🙄
r3dk0w@reddit
I hear a lot of these responses about teaching to the test and how that's a bad thing. What do you see as an alternative?
I'm honestly curious as to what educators see as a better solution.
I'm just a normal person that's sent quite a few kids through the system. It's my impression that standardized testing is a minimal bar for all students that provides a grade for the school itself on how effective the teaching has been.
SwagTeam6@reddit
(Not a teacher, just had to take TAKS tests in school) I think when you teach to a test you end up spending a lot of time taking practice tests, learning how to handle questions/problems you don't totally know the answer to, etc. and a lot of people find it to be a waste of time and resources. Another thing I've observed is that if the test focuses only on a few key topics or problem types in a subject, then the teacher is expected to just focus on those the whole semester (say the 5th grade math test is mostly just division, so the whole semester is spent on teaching division when really they should be balancing out the curriculum so kids learn more than just division that year.)
I think the idea of a standardized test does help set a baseline across all schools like you say, but it becomes a problem when the sole focus of the school is to just pass these tests and so the school faculty/admin get lost in the sauce so to speak. Just my take on it though.
r3dk0w@reddit
Great response!
In your example, if the 5th grade math class has to spend an entire semester learning division enough to pass the standardized test, doesn't that mean that the class was overall behind the expectations? What is the class doing if they aren't spending time educating the student to a minimal level of math knowledge?
It just seems like if they didn't spend that time learning division, the next year the students would be even farther behind. This snowballs to high school where there are students that don't have the basic skills needed to graduate and be a productive member of society.
This just seems like a set of minimal requirements for the grade. Sure the curriculum might be focused on passing the test, but the test should be the low-bar of education. If the curriculum adequately evolved, in 4th grade they would be teaching division so in the 5th grade they could expand on the math knowledge.
r3dk0w@reddit
Before we had standardized testing, education was dependent on the school you went to. If you just happen to live in a poor district, your schools were shit and you had zero resources to help you.
People complaining about it now didn't have to live though what we had before. Sure it could be better, but leveling the educational expectations shouldn't be something we try to do away with.
azwethinkweizm@reddit
I feel like we go through this cycle every few years. TAAS gets abolished, all my local teachers throw a party, and it gets replaced with TAKS. TAKS gets abolished, all my local teachers throw a party, and it gets replaced with STAAR. In a few years we'll have the Texas Assessment of Quantitative Understanding and Intellectual Talent Observation (TAQUITO).
DosCabezasDingo@reddit
Why stop there? Let’s get rid of the SBoE. Let’s get rid of TEKS. Let’s get rid of public education entirely!! Oh wait, that’s what they want.
offout@reddit
It’s a power grab. SBoE is going nowhere—it’s from where they will release the Christian curriculum.
LevelDry5807@reddit
The STAAR is impressive sounding. Everyone pat themselves on the back for “ funding education”. Teachers know it doesn’t actually help educate students
Shaneathan25@reddit
STAAR is a symptom of education policies put in place by republicans. “No child left behind” and a focus on test scores doesn’t help most students actually learn the material. It’s rote memorization. Abolishing education departments instead of, I dunno, trying literally anything else, is stupid.
Shage111YO@reddit
It’s true. Hire more teachers to bring the ratio of students to teachers down.
LevelDry5807@reddit
Don’t care about that. Here we are . Doesn’t work
iBizzBee@reddit
That is not an argument for abolishing it, or the TEA.
Red_RingRico@reddit
Yep. Gotta secure those future votes. “I love the poorly educated”
DependentAd235@reddit
Let’s hope no one actually reads them.
They are actually not too bad for US history. I mean this would be “woke” for republicans today.
“US.7C: Analyze major issues of World War II, including the Holocaust, the internment of Japanese Americans”
New-Honey-4544@reddit
Yup, they love the poorly educated...
KwisatzOtaku@reddit
I'm in my mid 30s and have never taken the STAAR test. How old are some of you "experts" in here to know all about it?
Holls867@reddit
Starr test suck and especially when they become a default curriculum for the districts. Kids learn to take a test is all. I’m all for accountability but we can do better.
TheMaybeN00b@reddit
As an educator, getting rid of the STAAR test has me conflicted.
I hate teaching to a test whose score thresholds are a 26% for passing, which enables kids who just either get lucky or try to answer at least 14-18 questions correct to move on to the next grade level. STAAR scores don't even determine passing to the next grade until high school for most districts. This is why I believe a lot of kids who don't have the foundational reading and math skills, they should have learned from elementary to middle, are able to be in 9th grade. This is a shock as they felt comfortable failing upwards, and now it finally matters in high school where they are forced to keep repeating the STAAR tests in order to graduate. Or in other words, use money and funds to keep taking a test they'll hopefully get a 26% the next go around. The kids aren't learning.
On the other hand, if teachers are given more power to actually do their job and determine if a kid actually understands the content enough to pass on to the next grade level, I think that would be great and a step into honestly giving teachers more respect since they are the barrier to go on to the next grade level.
Problems with the situation above, we don't have enough teachers. It is true that around 34% of new teachers last year were uncertified as districts implemented "District of Innovation" programs to help combat teacher shortages. However, why are there not enough qualified teachers? Since I started teaching, I personally know 8 new teachers that just quit. Pay is number one, and kids apathy or belligerence rising is another. Top it off with little support and knowing in the back of their minds that if you fail a problem child, they'll be sent to remediation or back in your class again next year, which would mean your class size might go up from 30 to 38 next year, its hard.
Very complicated issue, but I doubt the powers that control the government right now have the best interests to actually helping our kids be educated.
cutivt064@reddit
With chatgpt becoming popular, it's time to drop school altogether sarcasm
4bannedaccounts@reddit
Can we all stop pretending that AI isnt the future of teaching kids. 100% of us had a million questions in school and you be lucky to get a couple answered in a day. Now there is no limit but you wanna keep the same model? Definition of insanity.
brandnewspacemachine@reddit
STAAR is trash and needs to gtfo
But not like this
Stepjam@reddit
I certainly don't think the standardized testing focus in Texas is great. But I don't trust these fuckers to replace it with anything better.
Shage111YO@reddit
Everyone should go back and watch Bill Moyer’s conversation with education historian Diane Ravitch
part I
part II
BlairofTheFlame@reddit
They primaried the last dude for voting against Paxton and school voucher so they could vote in this absolute waste of organic material.
lengthandhonor@reddit
pretty much all the other parents i've talked to agree education reform is needed. right, left, center we all want to see smaller class sizes, less teaching to the test, more recess for little kids, more books and fewer screens
there's alot of common ground. common sense reforms would be extremely popular across the board
Hoopy_Dunkalot@reddit
STAAR sucked anyway. Not sure of the political motivations here, but it was terrible.
LordSlickRick@reddit
I don’t know about the Texas agency, but I’ve only heard for 15 years how garbage the staar test it.
chrisrayn@reddit
How can they say they want to abolish one thing I want to keep and one thing I hate? So weird.
flamingramensipper@reddit
Just get it over with and ban girls from education Mr. yalliban
Hawkgirl8420@reddit
Call your representative to oppose this bill. I called this week to voice my opposition. Takes just a minute to do, but has a large impact if everyone who is opposed does the same.
NintendogsWithGuns@reddit
Of course he’s from Decatur.
KarlaSofen234@reddit
Why do they want to flood H1Bs into the country? W/o proper education ,firms will use it as excuse to hire H1B instead of true Americans
stoutshady26@reddit
Suddenly everyone is a fan of the STAAR? lol.
Steveo1208@reddit
When kids can not learn due to lack of funds, food, and supplies, why not simply remove testing and give everyone a participation trophy! The art of the steal!
More_Storage6801@reddit
I'm all for ending that stupid STAAR test.
saintshiva@reddit
As a 13 year title 1 sped teacher , I hate the STAAR and TEA. So good riddance to both. My caveat is not having TEA around could be worse than having them.
Mnudge@reddit
They privatize education for those with money to afford it, generate a “home school” industry built to support the white people who can’t afford private school, create religious charter schools for non-minority poor people who need child care but can’t afford pricey private schools
Defund and destroy public education for everyone else to keep them ignorant and underserved.
It’s fuckkng diabolical. These people are monsters
cornborncornbread@reddit
I saw the governor use TEA to undermine and contradict public health recommendations during COVID. Once the work is done, the tool is discarded.
Acceptable-Draw-3680@reddit
Make America Dumb Again!
But, seriously what is the replacement? We barely have an education system as it stands, “hillbillies” and “minorities” cut each other down, all the while being force fed the same indoctrinating fodder. It’s long past the time to educate the individual, no one person learns the same, and no one person respects a teacher that doesn’t know how to teach them on an individual basis!