Parents sue TEA over high-stakes testing

Plaintiffs say state ignored new rules in administering exams

AUSTIN — The Texas Education Agency and the STAAR tests are under fire again, this time by a group of parents suing the department for allegedly ignoring state law in administering this year’s end-of-year exams.

Four parents argue the education agency knowingly disregarded legislative directives requiring the tests known as STAAR, the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, be redesigned so the vast majority of students in grades 3-8 could finish them in two to three hours, depending on their grade level.

The plaintiffs argue the state never changed the tests after the governor signed the new rules into law in 2015, giving students illegal exams this year that will be used to decide this summer whether they advance to the next grade or attend summer school.

“The TEA had a clear choice. They could spent nine months designing an assessment that complied, or they could put their heads in the sand and hope that nobody noticed,” said Scott Placek, lead counsel on the lawsuit. “Well, the parents noticed.”

The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction requiring the state to discard the test scores. They also are seeking up to $100,000 in monetary relief.

A spokeswoman for the TEA declined comment on the lawsuit.

4 hours to finish

Students were given four hours to complete individual exams, said Debbie Ratcliffe, director of media relations for the agency. TEA still is collecting data to determine how long students took to complete the exams, which were taken as recently as May 12, she said. She did not know when the results of that data would be finalized.

As the country moves to increasing accountability in public schools, parents here and elsewhere are pushing back against standardized testing. They argue so-called “high stakes” exams cause undue stress on children and take attention away from arts education. The results of tests are used to calculate student proficiency and determine whether students can advance to the next grade level. Exam results also factor into the evaluations of teachers, principals, schools and districts.

Parents frustrated with the system moved lawmakers to reduce the number of tests students are required to take to five from 15 at the high school level in 2013. Since then, many have kept the pressure on for more changes, including pushing for the 2015 passage of HB743 meant reduce the amount of time younger students spend on testing.

The movement has led Ben Becker, a parent of three young children, to organize and raise more than $20,000 to fund the legal effort to fight the TEA and standardized testing, although only one of his children is old enough to attend the Houston Independent School District. He is not a plaintiff in the suit.

“The TEA has shown they’re not interested in complying with the law,” said Becker. “There are tens of thousands of parents, if not more, that have material impacts to their children because of the high-stakes testing. When you look around and say what are we getting for this, we’re not getting anything.”

Opting out

According to state law, 85 percent of students in grades three through five are required to have finished an individual STAAR test within two hours. Sixththrough eighth-graders are expected to finish their exam in three hours.

“Not once did they say they needed a transition year,” Placek said. “It never should have gotten to this point.”

Parents suing the state include a Houston mother, Claudia de Leon, parent of a third- and fifthgrader at James F. Helms Elementary School, which the state has designated as in need of improvement.

De Leon, a product of HISD, opted her oldest son out of standardized test for the last three years and is now pulling her third-grade daughter out of testing, too.

“Failing and making mistakes is part of learning and part of education and should not be used to punish. As long as that is happening, I will hold my children out of testing,” she said.

Other plaintiffs include middle school parents from Corinth, Orange and Wimberly.

The suit is the latest bruise on the embattled STAAR test. A clunky roll out this spring culminated in computer systems deleting answers on more than 14,000 tests. Education Commissioner Mike Morath said students negatively affected by the technology glitches will not have their test scores held against them.