We hear the concern from Texas Democrats, but, no, the STAAR should not be canceled this year.
We fall in line with popular Texas opinion that our state’s standardized tests are expensive, unnecessary, high-stakes, unfair and limit learning — especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A 2022 Charles Butt Foundation poll found Texans’ confidence in the STAAR dropped from 49 percent in 2020 to 44 percent in 2022.
Democratic lawmakers often say the STAAR is the top complaint they get from constituents. When state Sen. José Menéndez, who has filed bills in the past two sessions to cancel the STAAR, surveyed some 13,000 Texans last spring, he found 97 percent of respondents favored ending the test.
A December 2021 survey of 2,498 respondents who are members of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, a statewide union of 66,000 educators, found 88 percent of Texas teachers don’t trust the STAAR.
We get it. The STAAR was never a brilliant idea. But it’s too late to cancel. This is an example of political rhetoric running into reality.
The calls from Menéndez and other Democrats, including Beto O’Rourke, now running for governor, to cancel the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness exams are no surprise.
In a Jan. 26 letter to Gov. Gregg Abbott and the Texas Education Agency, Menéndez outlined the omicron surge, unprecedented staffing shortages and metal health emergencies for students and staff. Taking the test as normal this year would put lives at risk and produce inaccurate data, given the disproportionate challenges faced by students, he asserted.
While we agree with Democrats’ assessments of the STAAR, students should get their No. 2 pencils ready. We’re out of time and options. There is no backup plan for the state assessments scheduled for the spring, and some schools are required to give parts of a newly designed STAAR in field tests that begin Feb. 14-18.
The federal government requires state standardized exams, and President Joe Biden and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona have emphasized normal in-person schooling. They have not spoken of waivers — and Texas has not asked. We don’t expect that to change.
Last spring when COVID-19 was still keeping many students out of school buildings, we asked the STAAR be canceled or postponed. It wasn’t. But it was administered as a benchmark and, importantly, not for school accountability. This experience offers a way forward.
Texas secured a waiver last year to cancel, as it did in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, but this year, it’s back to normal — except that schools that receive D or F ratings will be listed as “no rating” and will get a pass on a TEA sanction. This makes sense: Students are already attending school in-person, so it isn’t any more risky than normal schooldays.
Last year’s STAAR showed significant declines in learning and disparities. While this wasn’t surprising, the data have the potential to be helpful to address COVID learning loss.
Districts need to gauge this learning loss. Yes, we know learning has been interrupted, but data must drive the way forward.
Recent changes to the STAAR make it more interactive and expensive. Several requirements from House Bill 3906, enacted by the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019, require the redesign of the STAAR that includes transitioning to online assessments next school year. Last year, the state signed four-year agreements with two companies to administer the STAAR that totaled $388 million.
Maybe changes in the next session will make the STAAR more equitable, less high-stakes and less expensive. Some Texans are already working on it.
On Jan. 18, Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonpartisan education public policy organization based in Austin, gathered hundreds of education experts, researchers and policymakers for its Measure What Matters Conference. The organization’s leaders believe schools provide much more than STAAR instruction, and they plan to continue studying how best to evaluate it.
We hope they find solutions. A methodical process — not an abrupt cancellation — could be the antidote to the STAAR’s flaws.
San Antonio Express-News
