In pandemic, STAAR is an unfair stress test

In past years, the STAAR test sparked considerable stress at Texas schools.

Perhaps aside from that really mean kid who makes fun of off-brand shoes and bargain backpacks, it was the biggest stressor. Everybody saw the stress lumbering down the hall from the first day of the fall semester.

The State Assessment of Academic Readiness is used to measure if schoolchildren are learning what they need to learn in order to be considered sufficiently educated Texans; the test is supposed to show that students are ready to advance to middle school, high school and ultimately, graduation. Test results are also used to measure if and how well educators are doing their jobs, separating the low-performing schools from their high-performing counterparts. The STAAR test might not be the best way to measure these things, but the high-dollar assessment is what Texas has been using since 2012 to size up what happens in its classrooms.

For that reason, the STAAR stakes — and the pressure to perform — are high. Accountability is important; in a state as big as Texas, with its diverse cultural and economic circumstances, maybe a certain amount of pressure is necessary to keep everybody on the right track.

Of course, that was before the pandemic that outlined just how different Texans’ economic tracks really are when it gave the laptop-holding haves the perk of being able to attend class in pajamas and the have nots another reason to hate school. And it was before the snowstorm that had schoolchildren gathering snow to melt so their folks could flush the toilets — if their homes still had power with which to melt that aforementioned snow. If Texas officials couldn’t figure out what to do about the unprecedented 2020-2021 school year, despite the prolonged Spring Break and the Summer of Staycations, it’s little wonder nobody had a plan for The NoWater/No-Power

Winter Break.

Yet even though nothing about the 2020-2021 school year has been normal, Texas’ STAAR tests are still on, although the test has to be proctored and can’t be taken from home. It’s important, officials argue, to get a measure of how we’re doing during these strange times.

Last March, Gov. Greg Abbott let everybody off the hook by canceling STAAR testing for the 2019-2020 school year, and in July, waiving the requirements that allowed kids to advance from fifth to sixth grade and from eighth to ninth grade. There was a Beginning-of-Year

version of the test offered to school districts that voluntarily wanted to test, just to see if adjustments had to be made in the classrooms since schools shut down after Spring Break 2020. According to the Texas Educational Agency, the voluntary exercise found “students experienced a 3.2 month instructional loss from the closures, in addition to the 2.3 months of summer learning loss.”

Surely, nobody was surprised by that. So we shouldn’t be surprised when those who are more afraid of COVID-19 than they are of negative STAAR results fail to shine — or even show up.

It’s been a terrible year filled with really scary statistics and funerals that nobody could attend. It’s been too many months of stifling multi-ply face masks and sanitizer that smells like gasoline because it is hard to find the kind that smells like sweet peas or peppermints. And, for those who are supposed to be learning to go their own without Mom and Dad, it feels like an eternity since they’ve been to a theater, held hands at a football game or had lunch at a table stacked with anybody who’s anybody in their world.

Few of us remember the Pythagorean theorem or the periodic table off the tops of our heads, but we remember the first dances, the big crushes, the silly weekends spent eating pizzas and giggling with best friends. Our kids, even the ones who went back to class, have lost out on a lot because of the pandemic, and it has taken its toll. If there’s something Texas students haven’t missed out on, it’s pressure.

These are strange times, and to expect anything more than strained STAAR scores is unrealistic. We see this one coming and it’s really unfair.

If nothing else, we ought to be prepared.

Lisa Krantz / Staff photographer The STAAR exam is a Texas ritual, but do we really need to do this during a crazy stressful pandemic year? What are we testing?