Some students do well on the test, but are not competitive when it comes to entering the real world said CISD Superintendent, Dr. Edward Gabaldon. (/Borderzine.com)
EL PASO – The preliminary scores of the new STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) test measuring the achievement of grade-school students came out this past summer prompting some in the Texas education community to ask if too much time is now spent on testing.
“The Texas school system is good. It has good teachers and good students, but the problem is the accountability emphasis,” said Dr. Edward Gabaldon, Superintendent for the Clint Independent School District.
Gabaldon said he is in favor of testing and accountability. However, he said he is concerned with the number of days dedicated to testing and the amount of pressure that the test puts on the students, parents and teachers.
Dr. Edward Gabaldon, CISD Superintendent. (Courtesy of Mr. Gabaldon)
The students are being tested almost the entire year. After the first three weeks in a typical school-year calendar, not a week goes by without testing, he said. Over-testing is unnecessary when the results are not useful for instructions purposes, he said.
Gabaldon said that a resolution signed by some 500 district superintendents in Texas was submitted to the Commissioner of Education asking for a reduction in the number of testing days. Gabaldon said that the “high stake testing puts too much pressure on our kids.” He sees the importance of reconfiguring the way students are being tested and said he feels positive about the outcome of the petition.
Gabaldon said that somehow the focus of instruction has shifted in the Texas public schools and students are not getting enough preparation to go on and pursue a career. Some students do well on the test, but are not competitive when it comes to entering the real world or going to universities outside Texas, he said.
An example of the problem of accountability in the testing process is the recent cheating scandal in the El Paso Independent School District. The administration felt so pressured to perform at the required standards that they lied about the data.
In the preliminary scores of the STAAR test in El Paso area school districts, only Socorro compared favorably to the state averages of 68 percent in English reading and 56 percent in English writing. Socorro scored 67 percent and 52 percent, while Clint scored 58 percent in reading and 37 percent in writing.
Marina Menchaca, a third grade teacher at Frank Macias Elementary points out that in her opinion the design of the test is unfair to the students here because the population in a border city like El Paso is very different from other areas in Texas. The economic disadvantages are great in this area and this aspect greatly affects performance, she said, and the test does not take social status and background into account.
Accountability measures in correlation to testing results are unfair, she said. Not all teachers are accountable for the results, and sadly these results are putting weight on how schools and districts are performing, she said. Teachers who do not have the responsibility to prepare the students for the testing do not have the same pressure. The emphasis on testing is taking the fun out of learning, she said. “There is not much time for fine arts and for other activities that are not related to the test.”
She said that if results had been available soon after the students took the test, teachers would have been able to prepare for the current year. “After 10 years of TAKS we are starting all over again,” she said.
