Testing

How often have you asked your child how school was only to learn they were taking another test? Standardized high-stakes tests such as the STAAR exam have taken over our education system. Test scores determine graduation and advancement. Test scores determine school and district ratings. Test scores affect property values, taxes, and school funding. Educators are hired and fired for their students’ test scores. Almost every decision in education is made based on test scores.

Because there is so much riding on the end-of-course (EOC) exams, the primary focus of the district seems to be test preparation. As a result, CCISD requires frequent, year-round tests to prepare its students for the STAAR test.

Students take standardized skills checks, Common Formative Assessments (CFAs), and Benchmarks throughout the year. (In many cases, these assessments are over content the students haven’t even learned yet.) During the last school year, students were required to complete MAP Growth tests three times a year for each core subject. Some of these MAP tests require multiple days to complete.

These tests take up instructional time that could be better spent learning, not testing. My son had so many tests during his eighth-grade year that his English class was interrupted by some sort of testing 43 times throughout the year! That is 24.7% of instructional days!
I had questions.

How much learning time is lost due to all this testing? How much money does this cost the taxpayer? Why are we doing this to our children? Does any of this make our students more successful in life?

Our children are more than their test scores.

As a school board member, I will not be able to make the STAAR exam go away. That is up to our state legislature and governor. The school board does, however, approve the district-mandated testing and holds our district administration accountable. I believe we need to cut the number of standardized testing days in half. Let’s give this time back to our students so they can learn. Let’s stop treating them like data and let them be kids.