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writing for godot

TEXAS STANDARDIZED TESTING CONTINUES TO PROVE ITS WORTH(LESS)

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Written by Arturo Tha Cuban   
Friday, 29 May 2015 15:37
Nearly $300,000,000, four years, and lackluster results bring up many fundamental questions, about the tremendous cost and the impact on children as well as teachers. While the impact on children is impossible measure or put a dollar value on.



These statistics reinforce the need for a fundamental disruption in government education. One that leads us back to simply teaching our kids and ending standardized tests. Too much time is removed from the actual education of our children. Even an improvement would merely negate lost time from actual education. Simply put, these tests prove nothing that we don't already know about our children. In fact all they do is provide a third-party with our children's personal information. They are now treated as a commodity by the school system, our elected officials, and the testing companies.

While these tests prove their useless worth, the focus should be teaching to a child's strengths and smaller classrooms. While eliminating the focus on so much of this testing. In return we commit to improving the quality of the education our children receive. In Texas alone, school districts would see roughly $80,000,000 a year back in their coffers. These taxpayer dollars would go a long way in many cash-strapped school districts, and would assuredly be well received. Especially considering the terrible worldwide ranking in education we constantly receive.

These tests simply show us what we already know, and serve no purpose. We have always been able to understand the classes where our children have struggled. Is that not why we have Report Cards, Progress Reports, Parent/Teacher conferences and decades worth testing already in place? It seems that more accurate and better overall information could be derived from the existing testing system. On a more localized and personal level. If you want to improve the quality of our education system, this is where it will happen.

Texas has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to Pearson, a company that boasts many promises. Yet Pearson's results have come under much scrutiny lately, due to the massive growth of the opt-out movement nationwide. This movement has brought much of this unwanted attention to testing companies, mainly focused on their inability to produce any desirable results.



The Impact On Children


The 2015 Texas STAAR results, and those from other states are what reinforces the current movement. Along with the commonality in the issues that parents have from every state. Nearly all parents nationwide will have questions similar to the following, in search of one thing. The truth.
Is the cost and intrusion from third-party testing companies necessary?
These companies provide negligible results with such a huge cost?
What about all the lost time regarding fundamental education?
Is this what our children endured so much stress and insecurity for?
The 2015 STAAR results in Texas show virtually no improvement over the last 4 years. Despite being touted by Pearson as a program that will improve grades. This has now proven to be the proverbial Snake-Oil, sold to us by our misinformed, power hungry, elected officials. These same elected officials have denied subjecting themselves to such ridiculous testing on several occasions. Do they think they are smarter than a fifth-grader? Apparently not...


Here’s are some base results for the last four years of STAAR in Texas:


Source: Texas Education Agency
Writing
4th grade - down 1%
7th grade - up 1%

Reading
3rd grade - up 1%
4th grade - down 3%
5th grade - up 1%
6th grade - up 1%
7th grade - down 1%
8th grade - down2%

Science
5th grade - down 1%
8th grade - no change
Social Studies
8th grade - up 5%


(Note: Math tests are not included as Texas standards and tests changed last year, for this year’s results to be compared.)

These statistics show that we are not only getting nothing in return for such a huge amount of taxpayer dollars. But our children are constantly being subjected to some felonious act, that is only destroying their individual self-worth. That is the real crime in all of this. Our children are being sold short of a quality education.



THE COST

Common knowledge would suggest that grades cannot improve while implementing such roadblocks that handicap teachers, and the learning process in general. All the while it is destroying creativity and limiting the ability to acquire the social-skills. The cost in dollars is one thing, but the damage to our children is invaluable. How much would you charge for your children were to be used as guinea-pigs in some weird socially dysfunctional experiment? If you can put a price on it, shame on you. However, you already have subjected them to a such an experiment... For free and at tremendous cost.

If you consider the costs of these tests (about $300,000,000 over 4 years), while showing us the results that have long been predicted. They show an absolute failure by Elected Officials to scrutinize such a program, particularly due of the huge cost to both taxpayers and parents as well. Instead they accept political contributions, and implement legislation on untested processes that directly affect our children based on strong lobbying by companies like Pearson. The damage to children comes with possible permanence, and an irreparable sub-par education that can not be undone. For so many to stand so high and mighty on this issue, they look foolish when refusing to take the tests themselves. However, many politicians have made a career out of looking foolish.

The state of Texas has recently awarded contracts for the next four years of testing. Conveniently they did so prior to these results coming out. As they assuredly know, that there will be massive protest over the issue. There has already been much backlash nationwide, and this will certainly reinforce it in Texas. You can draw obvious conclusions from the dubious action by your elected officials. Or you can give them a call or shoot them an email at their respective offices, and ask them yourself.


This new four-year agreement comes at nearly the same cost as the last four-years. With a slight bump to nearly $340,000,000. (Source: Texas Education Agency).

If that's not wasteful spending, I don't know what is...


THE CONTINUED BATTLE


Motivation Molly Says: Learn Corporate Slogans
As someone who has been in this fight since the very beginning about three years ago. I can assure you that neither I, nor any of the other parents nationally will lay down. When this all started, my family was the victim of some of the nastiest deception by school administrators. The same administrators empowered by the TEA, to deny us our constitutional right to have a say or take part in our children's education. They even threw in one of the most common deceptions used nationwide. Telling us that they would be denied Federal Funds if our children did not participate. Yet this has proven to be nothing more than scare tactic.

What ensued after that was a six-month court battle, that started with truancy accusations, and being told by the judge that I am not qualified to make decisions on my children's education. From there many issues were brought up including the constitutionality of opting out, along with the evidence of records manipulation. As one of my children was being counted absent for merely not participating in any STAAR related activities, while still attending school. Their records stated 24 absences in a three-month period, however I had school records of him being present all of those days. The records they provided in court showed absences during lunch period. This was done to trigger the truancy office to intervene, and they did so with a court summons.

We won our case, without legal counsel. We cited Supreme Court ruling both on the State and Federal level, along with exact wording from the Constitution of these United States. The ever so intelligent judge had to seek counsel from several other courts. In the end she wasn't even present on our final court date, to which the prosecution dismissed our case and a new precedent was set. We then made it public knowledge. And we started publicly sharing the proper letters with thousands of others. So that they could customize the documentation to suit their respective districts, thus allowing them the ability to exercise their rights. Avoiding the subjecting og their children to such immoral and useless testing.

Parents have become disenfranchised over these decisions to implement so much testing nationally. I no longer call them "public schools" as that implies the public has some form of control or say. Due to the fact that these politicians have implemented such ridiculous testing, without consulting the public at large is why they are now "government schools" to me and many others. Upon seeing the context of some of these tests, I will say they are dangerously close to becoming commercialized indoctrination centers.

I'm not trying to go too far on this. I believe "government schools" is certainly the proper term. Many see it as nothing short of government indoctrination centers. However the majority of us do not. We see this as a problem that can be fixed. And by making our voices heard in Texas and nationwide, politicians are starting to take notice. We are seeing a sea of change coming from the highest ranking members from the State level all the way to Washington.

They are most certainly back-peddling. Running to fix what they have broken, to appease the American people.

A very big congratulations is due to all the parents, students, and teachers who have put up such a fight. Many at great risk. To accomplish what we all agree is morally wrong, handicaps teachers, and destroys real education. Now let's give the money back to the schools, and use it where it is needed the most. On the front lines, supporting our teachers so that they may provide the quality education that they are so capable of.

The fight must go on, and it most certainly will, until we bring back the fundamentals of a proper education.



(More to come as this is an ever developing issue, as the voice of the people get louder)
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