Canceling STAAR risks losing $6B in federal funds
Texas could lose “essentially all” federal funding for public schools — about $6 billion in the last academic year — if state leaders cancel standardized tests in response to the disruption caused by Hurricane Harvey, Education Commissioner Mike Morath warned this week.
Some parents and advocates have argued that the tests shouldn’t be administered because students are more likely to perform poorly after missing class time and suffering trauma due to the hurricane and subsequent flooding. Classes were canceled across the Houston region after Harvey, with several
districts missing two weeks of instruction. A change.org petition asking state leaders to nix the tests this year has collected about 240,000 signatures.
But Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told state lawmakers earlier this week that unless the state secures a waiver, skipping the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, would put Texas in violation of federal law. That would threaten funding from Washing- ton, which accounts for about 10 percent of the state’s school funding.
“We don’t think a waiver could be or would be granted,” Morath said. “There’s no precedent for that in federal history.”
2 major questions
With canceling the tests virtually off the table, several Houston-area superintendents are asking Morath to forego issuing academic performance ratings to school districts. Such a move could give Houston ISD an extra year to improve 10 chronically failing campuses and stave off drastic state intervention.
The comments by Morath and local school leaders reinforce the widespread belief that Texas students will take the state’s standardized tests this school year.
State and federal officials have given no indication they plan to cancel the tests.
During a visit to the Houston area on Wednesday, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said she’d “heard some conversation” about Texas canceling its standardized tests, but the department hadn’t received a request. Leaders of the Texas House Public Education Committee asked Morath this week to inquire about the possibility of receiving a federal waiver for testing, though none voiced support for skipping the STAAR.
If STAAR is administered, two major questions remain: Will the Texas Education Agency change the date of the exams? And how will school districts be graded — and in some cases, punished — based on students’ scores?
Morath said his agency will likely have answers before the end of the month. About twothirds of school leaders surveyed by the TEA expressed support for keeping the current test schedule in place, Morath said.
Grades of ‘not rated’
But many local school superintendents and administrators have advocated changing how campuses and districts are graded based on the scores.
Several told legislators this week that schools and districts affected by the storm should receive grades of “not rated.” In 2009, following Hurricane Ike, state officials gave storm-affected districts a “not rated” grade if they performed worse than the prior year or were deemed “academically unacceptable.”
Because of a new state law, districts are expected to start getting letter grades — A, B, C, D or F — in 2018 based on various performance factors, including student scores on the STAAR. Campuses are expected to receive letter grades in 2019. A small decline in test scores wouldn’t significantly affect most schools, but a lower letter grade could influence the public perception of a campus or drop schools into “improvement-required” territory.
A one-time break in school accountability grades would benefit Houston ISD, which faces school closures or a state takeover of the district’s board of trustees if 10 chronically lowperforming campuses don’t improve this year. If those 10 schools receive “not rated” scores, Morath said, “that essentially gives the district an extra year, a mulligan, as it were.”
Results, not test, at issue
Aldine ISD Superintendent Wanda Bamberg recommended issuing a “not rated” grade to storm-affected districts. She said her district’s homeless student population has more than doubled — from about 500 last year to 1,146 after Hurricane Harvey — and nearly 300 instructional staff members “lost everything” in the flooding.
“Taking the test is not the issue. It’s what we do with (the results),” Bamberg said.
Alief ISD Superintendent H.D. Chambers echoed the sentiment. He said school leaders are witnessing the storm’s impact on behavior — with teachers and students occasionally getting in expletive-laden shouting matches.
“The trauma I’m seeing in schools and classrooms, I’ve never seen this in my 31 years,” Chambers said. “I think there’s a reasonable, rational way of (administering STAAR) that takes the pressure off of the teachers and doesn’t negatively impact the children.”