Assessing the STAAR Test

Most students in Texas are back in school and testing is already a hot topic. Texas uses the STAAR test to asses students throughout schooling, but some argue that standardized tests don’t accurately measure students’ knowledge. STAAR has also faced criticism for the number of tests. There will be changes to testing this school year, including breaking up tests into smaller tests throughout the year and allowing school districts to write their own assessments. Last year STAAR faced a number of problems, including lost tests that caused some students’ scores to be nullified.

Teaching to the test is a major disservice to our children. While it may help them to get good marks in some standardized tests, we’re short-changing students by denying them the ability to learn about the larger issues in their education.

There is a real need for reforms to our current educational system, but in the current hyper-politicized climate making real reforms is incredibly difficult. In many corners people are more concerned about scoring political points than on instituting reforms that will bring real results for children. Fixing problems in our educational and student testing systems will require us to be solution oriented and to have a much broader conversation, we will have to put aside the soundbites and the shibboleths.