Testing reform coming from Legislature (en español)
A little after 2:30 a.m. this morning, I testified with other superintendents in favor of the committee substitute for House Bill 4 that I think restores trust, faith, and confidence in Texas’ accountability system. I’ve worked in public education since the eighties and have witnessed the struggle to combat the inevitable consequence of ‘teaching to the test’ that arises from high-stakes testing. CSHB 4 solves that problem, and I have never seen such revolutionary language in accountability legislation.
The biggest change CSHB 4 would make is eliminating the STAAR. Yes! Eliminating STAAR. STAAR assesses only a portion of state standards and is unable to measure how much a student learns and grows over the course of a school year. We all know STAAR creates undue pressure on students and teachers, narrows curriculum, and focuses on test-taking strategies rather than authentic teaching and learning.
Chairman Brad Buckley and Vice Chair Diego Bernal have been sincerely seeking input about this issue from a working group of superintendents and accountability experts, and I am as impressed by their leadership as I am by CSHB 4.
Here’s what CSHB 4 would do:
- Replaces STAAR with a nationally norm-referenced progress monitoring system more closely aligned with state standards. These tests would give us a broader understanding of student performance by tracking progress and offering comparisons to a broader group of students.
- Provides you and parents with real-time, user-friendly feedback. Real-time feedback creates meaningful accountability by providing actionable data. It doesn’t help to get STAAR scores back after the student has already moved on to the next grade.
- Incorporates other indicators into our A-F ratings besides just test results such as workforce development, early childhood readiness, quality teacher development, advanced education for high-achieving students, even student engagement in extracurricular activities!!
Those of us who have seen Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just A Bill” know that there’s still a long road ahead, but I believe Buckley and Bernal are committed to passing CSHB 4 into law, and this means that your concerns have been heard. You can speak up, too, by contacting your state legislators and tell them you support this truly revolutionary bill.
In closing, you need to know that none of this would have been possible without you, really and truly. Much of what lawmakers are trying to do in public education is to replicate our success statewide. If you weren’t doing great work in Dallas, I wouldn’t be getting very far on your behalf in Austin. Keep up the good work.
Yours,
Stephanie S. Elizalde
