Burnt Orange Report

TAKS is not the only measure for student achievement. Describing the test as "high stakes" is a little disingenuous. Graduation or advancement certainly is quite a stake, but the test is really a basic skills test. If you can't pass it, there is a real problem. And if you are able to secure a 3.8 GPA while not being able to demonstrate basic skills, then there is a problem with the course work. The test is also the one way to show that schools across the state are providing an education that is at least similar.

There's also third graders that can't handle the stress of the test. They know that if they fail, they won't advance -- so they lock up. It happens to people of all ages.

This isn't just an issue facing kids in high school. When an eight-year old spends ten hours taking a test, there's something wrong.

By the 7th time they take it, they should be used to it.

They only get three chances. They may not necessarily get it right in three tries. After all, the Republican-controlled Legislature and Republican Governor have failed five times already at fixing school finance.

Snub you are correct TAKS is not the only measure for student achievement but it is the only one that matters. You can attend school everyday, make A's and B's and not be a good test taker Manufactures of this test say that the test should not be used as the sole determinate when it comes to retention and promotion but its happening in Texas. Fail your LSAT's and you know there are other options. But for a 17 year old told their not going to walk with their classmates at graduation because they did not pass a test, there are no other options. I hate talking about numbers because you forget there are actual people behind the numbers but 50% of students held back once during their 12 years in school do not make it to graduation night. The likelihood increase dramatically the second time a student is held back. Snub, I imagine you were a student like myself, high GPA and passed the TAAS (the previous standardized test in TX) with flying colors. If so then great for us but how about all those other students we went to school with that struggled. Don't they deserve to be judged not solely by a test score which means absolutely nothing if you graduate but instead by teacher evaluations, overall progress year to year and some human compassion? We should use test for their true meaning, as a procedure for critical evaluation; a means of determining the presence, quality, or truth of something; a trial. Education is the knowledge or skills obtained or developed by a learning process, not through teaching and passing a test.

Very well said, curious,

"Describing the test as "high stakes" is a little disingenuous."

Grade promotion is based almost solely on the TAKS test, administrators' job performances are judged largely on their schools' TAKS pass rates, and with Rick Perry's new merit bonus idea, even teachers' salaries are now tied to the TAKS. It's not disingenuous whatsoever to say that there are high-stakes attached to the TAKS exam.

I'm not going to disagree that there are weaknesses to this type of testing. However, this is a basic skills test and that needs to be distinguished from other types of tests. If 50% of kids in a given class can't pass it then that diploma is not worth the paper it is written on. If education, particularly public school education, is going to be the future of this state then having attained that "education" has to represent an actual achievement. It is, as I mentioned earlier, the only tool we have to measure schools across the state that is a consistent measuring stick.

Being held back defintiely has a stigma, but it seems to me the worst of all worlds to know a kid is not prepared and to thrust him/her into a situation where they are guaranteed to fail. On balance, I think testing offers the best promise for identifying kids who need help and ensuring that education means something, but I'm not going to question the motives of anyone who disagrees.