DONNA GARNER EXPLAINS KISD'S LACK OF PREPARATION FOR STAAR TESTS:
The problem is NOT with the Type #1 TEKS nor with
the Type #1 STAAR/End-of-Course tests. The problem is with the lack of transition
by Katy ISD and districts all over this state. They CHOSE to purchase with their SB 6
funds the Type #2 curriculum and
Type #2
teacher in-service training such as [but not limited to or including all of the following
MM]:
CSCOPE, Common Core, Guided Reading by Fountas & Pinnell, balanced
literacy, Lead4Ward/Gayla Wiggins/Ervin Knezek, Ted Sizer’s Coalition of Essential
Schools, Howard Gardner, Atlas Learning Communities, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe, National Equity Project, ASCD, materials and/or training by
Lucy Calkins/Linda Darling-Hammond/Deborah Meier/Bill Ayers/Robert Marzano/James Barufaldi/Bill
Spady/Willard Daggett/Gary Keep/Doug Reeves/Phil Schlechty Center, curriculum materials
published by Heinemann, Learning List, TASA iTunes, TASA/TASB teacher training materials,
etc.
This Type #2 curriculum and the associated Type #2 teacher in-service
are not preparing students to meet the requirements of the TEKS. The TEKS themselves grow
in depth and complexity from one year to the next; and in time after districts
systematically bridge the gaps created by the “new” TEKS, students will begin to grow
academically and show their prowess on the STAAR/EOC’s. More importantly, students will
have a strong foundation of basic skills upon which they can do higher-level thinking.
Without that strong foundation, students are bereft of any chance to
become well-educated citizens and well-informed voters.
Districts have had since 2008 (when the new ELAR/TEKS were adopted) to
start plugging those gaps with a systematic transitional plan; but instead, they chose
Type #2 curriculum/teacher training while putting immense pressure on the Texas
Legislature to do away with the STAAR/EOC’s. After all, without those “blamed
tests,” parents would not know that their children have not learned the skills at each
grade level that will help them to graduate with a strong foundation of basic-and-advanced
knowledge and skills. Without those “blamed tests,” parents will not know whether or
not their children are prepared for college and/or the workplace. Without those “blamed
tests,” parents will not know whether or not their local school district is using their
taxpayers’ dollars wisely to educate the local students. Do away with the tests, and
the objective means of measuring academic achievement by schools and their students would
be gone.
Unfortunately, we are seeing that the plan to put the legislature under
great pressure by TASA/TASB, Texas Parent PAC, and TAMSA to dump the “measuring stick” at
each grade level/course seems to be working. In the last legislative session, the
EOC’s were dropped from 15 to 5; and in this present legislative session, a move is on to
reduce the STAAR’s even further in K-8 as well as the STAAR/EOC’s in high school.
Parents are right to be concerned about this dumbing down of our Texas
public schools. Our Texas school children deserve better from KISD administrators and from
other administrators and educators who work at the pleasure of those taxpayers who pay
their salaries.
Type #1 vs. Type #2 Chart:
http://www.educationviews.org/comparison-types-education-type-1-traditional-vs-type-2-cscope-common-core/
Donna Garner
Retired Texas Classroom Teacher
Wgarner1@hot.rr.com