Keep STAAR test to flag education gaps amid pandemic
We note with interest recent calls from some Texas legislators representing large cities to water down or eliminate the STAAR test. We hear their reasoning, appreciate their good intentions and agree COVID-19 has created profound difficulties for school districts, teachers and children. However, reducing accountability in response to COVID-19 is a bad idea.
Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has been hard on our kids academically, socially and emotionally. Multiple experts support the physical return of children to the classroom, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. chief immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci.
While the country eases out of COVID-19’S grip, let’s determine how badly it’s impacted our children and follow the best path to recovery.
This fall, all Texas school districts were encouraged to voluntarily administer an abbreviated version of last spring’s STAAR test to help determine the extent of the “COVID-19 slide.” Yet only 20 percent of districts did so. In Boerne ISD, though our kids traditionally do well on standardized tests, our fall STAAR scores were shockingly low.
These data document the “COVID-19 slide” is as real for the districts who had the courage to measure as those that did not. Teachers everywhere are working twice as hard to help students catch up; thanks to their heroic efforts, solid progress is being made. Yet teachers will tell you the COVID-19 slide is real.
Parents need to know exactly how real. Policymakers need to know. And, yes, editorial boards and pundits need to know, too. Which means we need to measure it. Then we can ask: What path forward should we take?
While we support reform of the standardized testing system, believe that four-hour tests are excessive and contend a one-day test doesn’t fully assess a year’s worth of work, STAAR data provides important diagnostic information needed to guide progress and keep districts accountable.
It’s false to think only wealthier districts can do well on STAAR. Perhaps when standardized testing first began, this was true. But with critical improvement to testing criteria, including measuring academic progress, STAAR is no longer a tool just to reward those districts whose students were already likely to do well.
Today, STAAR allows progress to be measured not just on where students start but on how far they progress during any individual year. Importantly, the requirement to measure progress has boosted results for districts with traditionally high percentages of economically disadvantaged students and English language learners.
No district can afford to ignore how these kids do, especially now because many of them are impacted disproportionately by COVID-19. Where the light shines, action follows.
In 2018, an impressive 30 percent of students in the Rio Grande Valley, despite more challenging demographics than Bexar County, attended school in a district that earned an A rating and 56 percent a B rating. No districts received a D or F. Yet in 2018 in Bexar County, despite demographics with lower rates of poverty and English language learners, only 1 percent of students attended school in a district that earned an A, and 54 percent were in a district rated B. Six percent were in districts rated D.
Fortunately, since 2018 there has been steady progress in many Bexar County school districts. This is encouraging. With proper accountability tools, academic progress is achieved. We therefore find it interesting that some legislators are advocating to water down the very tool showing there is still much work to do.
Going forward, let’s all agree that teachers and in-person teaching are essential. Let’s make availability of vaccines for teachers a top priority. Let’s reopen all our schools to safe in-person teaching. And let’s measure our decisions by whether they are good for our disadvantaged kids first.
But let’s not eliminate the very tool that allows districts to measure those students most impacted by COVID-19. And let’s not set aside the one tool that allows parents and policymakers to keep districts accountable along the way.