THE TAKS:
The TAKS have been replaced by the STAAR test. Before the TAKS (2003-2009) we had TAAS (1991-2002), and before that we had TEAMS (prior to 1990), and before that we had TABS. They've all been worthless "assessments" not tests that told us anything about students' intellectual and academic abilities.
Parents should learn the difference between an assessment and a test. It's important for them to know.
The scores and the tests themselves were easily manipulated by the TEA. Always recall that these tests measured a very low level of "passing" which meant that "excellence" was not part of the equation.
Whatever is used to replace the TAKS, one can be certain that it will also not truly test students' academic abilities. If that were done, parents would realize what a farce a public school education in Texas truly is, these days.
Here is a letter I wrote, and which was published, to the Katy Times Editor about 2000. Once people start figuring out the flaws in each State Test, then the TEA dreams up another one, thus preventing comparisons and allowing them to say, "well this one is different." I maintain that they are all the same as they all are designed to mislead the public, the students, and their parents.
TAAS NOT CREDIBLE MEASURE OF SCHOOL DISTRICT SUCCESS
Dear Editor:
When asked, most folks in Katy say they moved here because of the "good school district." Every year the KISD administrators drag out their wonderful performance on the TAAS test to prove to parents just how good the schools are.
Is there credibility in the TAAS (a test of minimal skills that at this point in time mostly appraises the social engineering going on in government schools) as a measurement of the academic quality of our schools? I think there is not and often said so while a KISD board member.
Over the weekend, the Houston Chronicle printed all the scores for all the Houston area schools. One of the Houston ISD schools that in my mind does the best job, Wesley Elementary, posted sterling scores. In a school located in an inner city neighborhood (Acres Home) where the demographics of the school include among 860 students 88.1% African-American, 11.4% Hispanic, and 0.3% Anglo, 0% Asian or Native American, with 0.6% LEP exemptions and 2.6% Special Education exemptions, and with 90.1% low income, the school had passing reading scores of 99.7%, math passing scores of 98.1% and 100% passing scores for writing.
Are these scores an indicator of greatness? Hardly. But they do indicate that this school, a creation of Thaddeus Lott, the principal, has done its best to make sure ALL of the children do at least this well.
Of interest to me, and certainly to all the folks who moved to the Katy ISD for the "good" schools is the fact that the passing scores of this inner city school in a very disadvantaged, minority student neighborhood are better than those of 17 of the 19 elementary schools in the Katy ISD. The two that beat Wesley by mere tenths of a point are Alexander and Pattison, and Pattison did not exceed Wesley in the writing category.
All Katy schools are far more advantaged with regard to demographic composition and parental interest. For example at Alexander and Pattison, with 674 students and 945 students taking the test, the demographic composition indicates that only 0.4% and 0.5% of the students come from low income homes; 0.9% and 1.5% are LEP exempt; 0.9% and 2.4% are Special Education exempt; 82.2% and 85.6% are Anglo; 7% and 9% are Asian; 3.3% and 3.6% are African American; 6.7% and 1.8% are Hispanic; and 0.1% and 0% are Native American.
How can such a school as Wesley Elementary do so well by comparison when its students are at such a disadvantage? Perhaps relevant factors, besides fine teachers, would include that at Wesley they use phonics, not whole language, to teach reading and use Saxon texts to teach real, not fuzzy, math.
Perhaps Katy folks might want to reconsider that move--or at least question what is being taught to their children in Katy ISD.
Mary McGarr
77450
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Before the TAAS test became the TAKS test, some conservative members of the SBOE tried to get rid of the test altogether. The Houston Chronicle asked me to write an editorial, and I did. They sent me the mock up for the Sunday paper, but SBOE member Donna Ballard submitted one too, and I got bumped. Mine was better!
TAAS TEST IS A JOKE; SUBSTITUTE A CREDIBLE, MEASURABLE TEST
by Mary McGarr
What a great idea the Republican leaders of the State Board of education have offered the public! I refer, of course, to the suggestion by board members Donna Ballard and Robert Offutt that the State eliminate the TAAS test.
Ballard is exactly right in her assertions that the test is irresponsible because improving scores on it has become the sole goal of schools' curriculum. The teachers are not to be blamed for teaching to the test, because they are judged by the performance of their students on that test.
No one is saying that teachers should not be held accountable for what they are doing in the classroom. What IS being said is that unless the assessment is reliable, that accountability system is fraudulent and unfair.
The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills is a major thrust of the Texas Education Agency, and it is a joke. The test is changed every year, mostly by making it less difficult so that scores will improve. The constant change allows governors, both Democrats and Republicans, to look good to the public. The proof of this statement is obvious when the scores go up by the same percentages all over the state. Last year, every school district in Texas was able to report to its patrons that their TAAS scores had improved. Do they think that no one noticed this fact?
In the April 1995 issue of Texas Lone Star, a publication of the Texas Association of School Boards, Gov. George W. Bush is quoted as saying, "The biggest struggle of all is going to be to free school boards, teachers and parents from the clutches of the TEA and the unfunded mandates of the Texas Legislature." Reportedly, a ballroom full of school board members from across the state stood and applauded in support of the promised deregulation efforts.
Bush also promised while he was running for governor to "eliminate the TEA." His strong stand against the educational bureaucracy was the only reason he was elected. However, as soon as he was elected, he became a strong supporter of that bunch instead of their best critic.
To quote State Representative Paul Sadler, D-Henderson, and State Senator Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, as credible critics of the Republican State Board of Education members, as the Chronicle and others have done, is irresponsible journalism. These two, along with board member Jack Christie, are the instigators of bringing the School to Work/Goals 2000 mess to Texas through their Senate Bill I, passed in 1995.
This initiative, begun by President Bush and his secretary of education, Lamar Alexander, and embraced by the Clintons, is a blatant attempt to take freedom of choice with regard to one's education and job choice away from all Americans. Parents have no idea what this entire group is trying to do in the name of "improving education."
Bringing "equity" to the finance system, creating site-based decision-making, turning junior highs into "middle" schools, installing the TAAS, revamping teacher education and staff development, lowering entrance requirements of universities, turning community colleges into vocational training centers, dumbing down elementary curriculum through whole language, math problem solving and the use of "manipulatives," eliminating books in favor of controlled computer curriculum, changing from "content" based learning to "process" learning, using "inventive spelling," acquiring correct writing through osmosis and making teachers "facilitators" have all occurred and now 80 percent of our students cannot read and/or think for themselves. These children will grow up to become a manipulated electorate, and they will exist to provide "workers" for big businesses.
There is no ambivalence in the Republican state school board members' stance on standards. The Iowa Test of Basic Skills has been proved over time to be a viable measurement of students' abilities. The norms for this test are redone regularly. This test measures students' academic achievement against that of other students of the same grade all over America.
The TAAS measures students against themselves and what they did the previous year. It should be obvious to anyone with a brain that there is a difference in the purpose of each. One test is measurable and credible; the other is not.
Unfortunately, it appears that the TAAS will remain and nothing will change until voters unseat people like George Bush, Jack Christie, Bill Ratliff and Teel Bivins who say one thing to get elected and do another once they are in office.
Hooray for the Republican State Board of Education members who are standing up for their beliefs and what is proper. It's a refreshing stance.