Topic: Testing

Senate committees set, and a bill takes aim at the STAAR test

Publish Date: January 18, 2019

The Legislature is still getting organized this month, and one of the key pieces of the puzzle for how bills become laws is committee assignments. While House assignments are still pending, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick today named committee members and chairs on the Senate side. Of note are the Senate Education Committee, where Sen. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) retained his chair,...

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TEA hearings on accountability rules once again shed light on problems with A-F

Publish Date: July 10, 2018

Throughout the month of June, TEA held public hearings to gather input on the commissioner of education’s proposed amendments and rules for the A-F accountability rating system. Districts will receive a rating of A, B, C, D, or F for overall performance, beginning in August of this year, while campuses will receive A–F ratings beginning in August 2019. Texas AFT...

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House committee to look at new ideas for evaluating student performance, effective special education programs

Publish Date: May 16, 2018

The House Public Education Committee will meet at the Capitol on May 24 at 10 a.m. to hold a public hearing looking at options for measuring student achievement beyond STAAR results. The committee will also look at TEKS in relation to measuring achievement, as well as a review of the Student Success Initiative. The committee then will hear testimony on...

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High-stakes testing resumes amid controversies

Publish Date: April 10, 2018

As a week of standardized state testing begins for Texas students, the stakes are higher than ever and controversy over the use and abuse of testing is intensifying. This year, under legislation passed in 2015, the state not only could compel closure of campuses given low performance ratings based on test results for multiple years—it also could take over the...

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Draft A-F accountability rules do little to allay concerns

Publish Date: March 19, 2018

 The 2015 legislature narrowly passed a bill providing for simplistic A-F ratings for schools, but the A-F system will not be implemented until later this year for school districts and not until 2019 for individual campuses. That gives the 2019 legislature a chance to reconsider and undo the A-F mandate, as other states disillusioned with this scheme have done, before...

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Lawsuit settlement ends use of value-added evaluations for Houston teachers

Publish Date: October 11, 2017

In another huge victory for the right of teachers to be fairly evaluated, Houston ISD agreed, in a settlement of a federal lawsuit brought by seven Houston teachers and our local union-- the Houston Federation of Teachers--not to use value-added scores to terminate a teacher as long as the teacher is unable to independently test or challenge the score. The most significant blow in this lawsuit was...

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