Texas superintendents join fight against high-stakes testing
The backlash began brewing long before Texas’ top education official called the emphasis on standardized testing “a perversion of its original intent,” long before the approach of new, more rigorous end-of-course exams.
For years, murmurs of discontent have stirred among teachers tired of devoting class time to test preparation, school administrators saddled by legislative mandates, parents anxious about an increasing focus on high-stakes assessments.
Now, a mounting chorus of school administrators, educators and parents is speaking out against a system in which they say testing has eclipsed teaching.
At least 40 school boards across the state, including those in Friendswood, Clear Creek, Alvin and Dickinson, have taken a public stand by passing a resolution decrying the “over reliance on standardized, high-stakes testing” that is “strangling our public schools.” Many others, including Humble and Crosby, plan to consider the resolution at their next school board meeting.
The Texas Parents Opt Out movement is encouraging parents to keep their children home from school on testing days, and the State Board of Education has scheduled an April 18 public hearing on testing.
Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott told the state board of education in January that the high-stakes testing culture has become “the heart of the vampire.” A few days later, he repeated the statement at a conference of school administrators, calling for a system that measures “every other day of a school’s life besides testing day.”
The comments earned Scott a standing ovation and seemed to give long-frustrated educators tacit permission to mobilize on the issue.
“As superintendents, we’ve reached the end of our ropes. It’s time to stand up for our kids and to stand up for our teachers,” said Vicki Mims, Dickinson ISD superintendent. “There should be minimum standards, but we can’t spend all our times focusing on tests. We see what it’s doing to our kids. It just can’t continue.”