STAAR is a waste of time
Teachers already know
Regarding “Glitches disrupt STAAR testing,” (A1, April 7): Shame on the Texas Education Agency for failing to properly prepare to administer this assessment that is increasingly a waste of time and an even bigger waste of money.
On Feb. 15, millions of Texans woke up to find that the state power grid was down. On April 6, thousands of Texas students woke up and went to school (some for the first time all year) to take the STAAR test. At my school, students had to wait nearly three hours before they could begin the test. Instead of dealing with chaos and stress, students could have practiced concepts and skills, and teachers could have differentiated instruction based on student needs.
It seems TEA is increasingly out of touch with the reality Texas teachers and students find themselves in these days. In February, Commissioner Mike Morath asked, “If we don’t know where (students) are, how do we know how to support them?” Mr. Morath, take it from a teacher: We teachers do know where students are, because we work with them each and every day. Only we didn’t get to work with them on April 6, because we spent hours administering a million-dollar test that will tell us things we already know.
Aric Barnes, Houston
A vote is a voice
Regarding “Demand expansion,” (A12, April 9): We pray for the well-being of our nation and its elected leaders. Current efforts to limit access to the ballot box are an affront to everything we hold dear as Americans. A vote is a voice and each person’s voice must be heard. To ignore or mute Americans’ voices can only compromise our great democracy.
Do not cast aside the free-will offering of such souls because they threaten some
unproven fears and outcomes. Rather embrace their participation in the exercise of democracy, and trust in shared faith that the good of our nation is found in the hands and hearts of every American.
Our nation’s democracy, though imperfect in certain ways, has enabled “We the People” to be represented by those who serve in elected office. They serve there by virtue of our individual votes at the ballot box. Every American, no matter their status, race, gender or religion, should be enabled and empowered to cast their ballot on every election day. Their participation is a hallmark of our nation’s strength and an example to the nations of the world.
It begins at the ballot box, an equalizer in our nation. Let every vote be counted for the sake of a strong and prosperous future for all.
Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, the Rev. William
Lawson and Rabbi David Lyon, Houston