Stakes high as STAAR testing kicks off
Jerry Rider tells her students at Rees Elementary to eat a good breakfast, study and get plenty of sleep before test day.
But for the past 19 years, the Alief ISD guidance counselor and campus testing coordinator has been unable to follow her own advice.
“Most of us don’t get a good night’s sleep the night before,” Rider said of testing coordinators. “You’re up wondering, ‘Did I mark this off the roster?’ and ‘Did I remember to tell the teachers about that form?’ ”
Across Texas, teachers, school employees, parents and students spent last week preparing for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, which begin Tuesday and continue this week.
Students in grades 4 and 7 will take a writing assessment this week, while fifth- and eighth-graders will take reading and math tests. English I and II tests will be given to some high school students.
Even though the bulk of STAAR testing happens in May, when students from third grade to high school take a battery of tests, districts worked last week to get their students and materials ready.
Counting on results
Emphasis on standardized testing has grown across the country in recent years as states, including Texas, have raised the consequences of poor performances. If a school’s students score poorly during two consecutive years, the campus must submit a turnaround plan to the state. If students continue to score poorly, a state monitor can be assigned and schools can close. And in 2018, STAAR scores will be one of the largest factors in determining what letter grade schools will receive under the state’s new, controversial letter-grading accountability system.
Those in favor of using test-based accountability say it holds schools and districts responsible for student outcomes, but opponents argue that there is now an overreliance on testing that has bled into the classroom and into students’ anxieties.
Rider had her first meeting about this year’s STAAR tests in November and started drafting a 2-inchthick manual for teachers at her school.
By the end of Monday, Rider had met with language arts teachers to figure out which students need English language learner accommodations, gotten together with all the teachers to review safety protocols, scanned in hundreds of testing booklets, and verified information such as the name, age, grade, race and socioeconomic status of students to be tested.
She had filled plastic bins with testing books, pencils, a bag to hold any student cellphones, animal crackers, napkins, gloves and a checklist for teachers.
She sorted students into different testing groups. Anxious test-takers might be in one group, while students who take the test orally might be in another group. Some students of different abilities will get more time on the test, while others will take the test online.
Rider is responsible for making sure they all take the right test with the right accommodations at the right time.
“I’ll talk to my family and say, ‘Yeah, I’m in charge of STAAR testing,’ and they’ll say, ‘Oh, you just hand out the books.’ No way,” Rider said. “The hardest part — the part I dread — is making sure each child is getting what they need. … The worst is to have to call a parent and say your child should have had more time, but the test wasn’t marked correctly.”
While Rider and other staffers who oversee testing scrambled to get materials ready, schools in the Fort Bend, Cypress-Fairbanks and Spring districts hosted pep rallies to try to motivate students before they picked up their pencils on exam day.
Energized and excited
At Tinsley Elementary in southwest Houston, the Houston Texans’ mascot, Toro the bull, came to review good test-taking habits, but it was hard to hear the advice over the children’s screams.
Cornerback Kevin Johnson and play-by-play announcer Marc Vandermeer appeared on a projector and told the students to study, eat a good breakfast on test day and take quick breaks if they get tired or anxious.
When linebacker Brian Peters walked in, 11-yearold Alyssa Campbell-Clayton could not contain her excitement when she was selected to answer a trivia question, win a T-shirt and pose with Peters for a photo.
“I’m so excited, I feel like crying,” Alyssa said, unable to remove her hands from over her mouth.
She said it was a welcome distraction from the coming tests and her anxiety over the assessments.
David Barragato, the principal of Tinsley Elementary, also feels some anxiety about testing. He said students’ test scores last year lifted the school out of “improvement required” status assigned by the state’s accountability measures. Now that they’re meeting the state’s standard, Barragato doesn’t want to slip back and risk seeing the state takeover or close the school.
“The kids need to be motivated to accomplish,” Barragato said. “I thought (the pep rally) would be a new way to get kids excited.”
But some school districts, such as Clear Creek ISD, would prefer to ignore the coming tests altogether.
The district tried, and failed, to gain an exemption from taking the exams, citing its district of innovation status. The innovation status does not allow districts to skip the STAAR test or make changes to curriculum, something Clear Creek ISD spokeswoman Elaina Polsen said school board trustees and district leaders knew when asking to avoid the test.
“Our community said we want the state to know where we stand on it,” Polsen said.
She said the district did not hold any pep rallies or special events aimed at encouraging kids to study and prepare for testing.