Commission tells us how to replace STAAR tests
It should come as no surprise that a special commission stumbled over trivia and politics while developing recommendations on the future of standardized tests in Texas public schools.
Trivia and politics and stumbling, after all, are what standardized student testing has come to be all about. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is.
The 15-member Texas Commission on Next Generation Assessments and Accountability held the last of its seven meetings on Wednesday and couldn’t even bring itself to say that the current State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests should be replaced.
In fact, the commission voted 9-1, with five members absent, to remove language about replacing STAAR tests from its previously issued draft report.
No timeline was attached to that draft statement. It was innocuous, unless someone were to conjure up a hidden political message that STAAR should be scrapped immediately.
The commission, created by the Legislature last year, is to send a final report to the governor and lawmakers by Sept. 1.
STAAR and all standardized testing, to say the least, have become politically unpopular. Whatever the reason for that, some form of student assessment and school accountability is an absolutely essential element of our public education system.
It’s a shame the commission stumbled, because its work product represented in the draft report is very good.
Particularly good is the long-term vision of “a mastery- or competency-based learning and assessment system that is self-paced rather than the current system that places students in a particular grade based on their ages. Instruction for each student would be individualized and students would be assessed as they reach certain instructional milestones.”
With technology what it is today and what it could become, there is no reason why a Texas student who has mastered, say, certain math concepts or level of reading comprehension shouldn’t be able to go to a computer, demonstrate that mastery and move on the next self-paced educational level.
The commission’s first recommendation envisions “implementing a computer-adaptive assessment system of multiple integrated assessments that are administered throughout the school year to measure individual student performance and growth.”
That recommendation survived. The next sentence didn’t: “This system would replace the current STAAR assessment program.”
STAAR will eventually be replaced. The commission has told us how.
This story was originally published July 28, 2016 at 6:13 PM with the headline "Commission tells us how to replace STAAR tests."