With the STAAR test to replace TAKS this year, parents may think standardized testing has turned a new leaf. It’s more of an old leaf turned over again and again.
The STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) test wants to succeed where several previous tests have failed, with more questions and extended teaching of the material.
The intention is to teach students critical thinking skills and prepare them for college.
UH Chair of Undergraduate Council and chemistry professor Simon Bott asserts that the increased workload will only lower the student’s standards.
“They’re being taught to memorize how to answer material,” Bott said. “The new testing isn’t going to change that in the slightest.”
Political science professor Kent Tedin gives standardized tests a little more credit.
“Standardized tests are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. They’re just better than anything else,” Tedin said. “They have limitations, but how do you know how schools are doing unless you have some form of baseline measurement?”
The question is, why have the previous tests been so unsatisfactory that people accuse them of dumbing down students?
“It’s not that the people deciding all this are trying to dumb anything down. They’re education bureaucrats,” Bott said. “They think they’re doing a good job, but they’re absolutely clueless about what’s going on in the trenches.”
Tedin agrees that the schoolteachers are not to blame.
“There are some very good teachers that teach students and help those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, just like there are great Major League baseball players,” Tedin said. “There aren’t enough of them to go around.”
The irony is that most parents first scapegoat the schoolteachers, regardless of facts.
“Teachers do a fantastic job,” Bott said. “But the state makes it impossible for them to do the job they’d like.”
Still, the majority of public school students receive a standard education thanks to STAAR, while the affluent send their children to private schools. There is little chance of finding a politician’s child anywhere else.
High school students who want to go to college are the apex — or the most susceptible to any negative impact of STAAR and the former TAKS test. SAT scores are a sure indicator that Texas has been trailing behind the national average for years.
“There isn’t time to get (high school) students to conceptualize, to think about things properly,” Bott said. “One expects at the college level for students to be able to think, and our high school students are not.”
College students have a reason to care — the future of Texas depends on education. Anyone who moves to Texas will want a good education system.
When asked about a solution to standardized testing, Teden said, “I think you need a mixed bag. That’s a better way of assessing someone’s ability.”
