AMARILLO, TEXAS -- The start of a new school year is looming, and so are those STAAR test results and anxiety surrounding those. It's not just the students facing higher standards from the state and federal government, but school districts as well. Both sides are feeling frustrations.
The demands being placed on our students and school districts are no secret. That fact is even more evident with the release of the Federal AYP Standards. Those standards measure how well students tested in Math and Reading.
71% of Texas school districts did not meet them. Overall, Amarillo Independent School District missed meeting those standards.
"Did our students quit learning? No. Did our teachers stop teaching? No. What really happened was the standards increased eight points in Math and severn points in Reading. So we have a much higher standard.The truth of the matter is the AYP system, the "No Child Left Behind System" has got to be revised, not just for AISD or but for the state of Texas, really for the nation. As a matter of fact, I think over 30 odd states have gotten waivers from this law," said Rod Schroder, AISD Superintendent.
Under the current structure of the "No Child Left Behind Act", the passing standards in the federal accountability system must rise to passing rates of 100% on the mathematics and reading test by 2014.
"These give schools a measurement of how they are doing under federal guidelines in terms of student achievement. We did not release state accountability this year because we are in the first of the testing program," said DeEtta Culbertson, Texas Education Agency Spokeswoman.
That testing program Culbertson talks about is the new STAAR. While last year, Former Education Commissioner Robert Scott waived the requirement that test count toward 15% of a high school student's total grade on a subject. This year, it goes into effect.
"The plan thats been put into place is to phase in the STAAR end-of-course exams. They began last year with last years freshman class who for all hopes and purposes will be sophomores this year and those students will be taking the STAAR end-of-course exams along with this years incoming freshman," said Culbertson.
11th graders this and next year, will take the exit level TAKS to meet their graduation requirements. There is good news, if a student did not pass an end-of-course exam, he or she has three opportunities each school year to retake the test. The state does not require the student to retake the class if he or she doesn't pass the test.
Meantime, Schroder says looking at the districts results from the first year of taking the STAAR, the students need to improve on writing.
"On our results, what we've got to do a better job is in our English Language Arts in writing areas. We had teachers this summer focused on what writing probes are requiring of our students both on expository and narrative writing".
