It’s the day every grade-school student in Texas dreads: STAAR testing.
For those of you who reside beyond the borders of the Great State of Texas, and even for those who reside inside the borders of the Great State of Texas but who have no clue what the acronym really means, STAAR is the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. In other words, standardized testing.
STAAR has been a buzz-word on social media this week. I’ve had many friends bemoaning STAAR, criticizing everyone from school janitors to top-level politicians for allowing our schoolchildren to be subjected to such torture. Others have drawn a line in the sand, sending letters and petitions to allow their children to “opt out” of STAAR testing. And more than a few have raised the rallying flag to force our State Board of Education to eliminate STAAR from not only our schools but also our lexicon.
I get it. I taught for a number of years under a different, but equally as standardized, test known as TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills). Both of my children are now of the age where STAAR readiness is an important part of their educational process. I know the anxiety, the pressure these kids feel. I know how stressful and unnatural the testing environment is. And I know how much educational time is taken in preparing children for this exercise.
But as an educator, a parent, and a taxpayer who is supporting our public schools, I also see the need for accountability. As a citizen of our state and nation, I understand the importance of basic and consistent academic standards. I want to know that a child in my community – regardless of socioeconomic status, race, or any other designation – is capable of performing certain things at certain checkpoints in their educational journey. I want to know that when a student graduates from high school, they have demonstrated mastery of specific academic concepts and skills…an understanding of our nation’s history, the ability to read critically and for understanding, competency in mathematical functions and the ability to solve problems creatively, the ability to write coherently, credibly, and logically.
So I asked those friends to offer reasonable solutions. You see, my mom always taught me that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. And with all the shouting going on about STAAR pressure and teachers teaching only to the test and students having anxiety attacks…I wanted to know: what would you suggest? What would be a reasonable solution that would ensure that teachers are teaching the required material, students are learning the required material, and schools are functioning well?
Not surprisingly, I got very little response. Most of it was along the lines of, “Well don’t put so much pressure on the kids” or “Don’t have so many test preparation days. It takes away too much instructional time in the classroom” or “Use the results as a diagnostic tool, not for the purpose of promotion.”
I’m left even more confused and befuddled than before.
How do you require students to demonstrate mastery of required material and yet not use the results as the basis for promotion? How do you prepare students – who have been used to working in cooperative groups, as part of teams, or in workshop-based classrooms where tests are often untimed, fill-in-the-blank or short response – for a multiple choice, timed test without giving them opportunities to practice in a genuine testing environment? How do you stress the importance of doing your best, taking the test seriously, checking and rechecking your work, using the problem-solving strategies taught in school without inadvertently causing some students to feel the burden of pressure? And in one sense, isn’t preparing our children to deal with high-pressure situations in which they will be evaluated – sometimes by people with absolutely no vested interest in them or their “needs” – a valuable life skill?
It’s a complicated issue, to be sure. And standardized testing isn’t a perfect solution. But in order to eliminate STAAR there must be a viable, reasonable, and valid alternative. Otherwise all the shouting is nothing more than a bunch of needless noise, which makes successful test-taking far more difficult.