Top schools call for new accountability beyond STAAR test

The leaders of some of the best school districts in Texas don’t really like the tests their students take.

Frisco, Plano and Wylie ISD are just a few of the counties that are asking the state to come up with a better way to label schools based on performance.

“I’m not a number, I’m not a count,” said Julian Williams, a senior at Plano West Senior High School.

It’s no secret that most students and teachers don’t like the STAAR test.

“It doesn’t reflect our classroom work and social skills, creative leadership and problem solving. It doesn’t take into account family involvement,” said Lauren Kessel, 7th grade teacher at Wylie ISD.

Teachers, students and superintendents met in front of our cameras and asked you to ask your legislators to come up with a better way to evaluate schools.

“When you see students under physical stress getting stomach ache, I don’t think anyone ever intended to hold our kids and our educators accountable,” said Teresa Williams, Superintendent of Plano ISD.

The Texas Education Agency said the department heard the complaints and worked to improve STAAR. This year, there are fewer multiple choice options, and more answers need to be written and charted. Texas teachers will also grade the tests. All this is based on requests within the class.

“Texas educators are at the heart of STAAR even before this redesign, and their feedback is critical to us in order for us to include appropriate subjects on the test,” said Lily Laux, deputy commissioner of school programs for the Texas Education Agency.

These educators say STAAR should be just part of a comprehensive assessment and not put that much pressure on teachers.

“We’re not afraid to test kids when it’s used for the right reasons, we’re just asking the legislature to look at it because that’s one of the reasons, this accountability system is one of the reasons teachers leave school. profession,” said Mike Waldrip, Superintendent of Frisco ISD, a top-ranking STAAR county each year.

They need a system more like the one used by the credit bureaus. In the same way that the size of your debt and paying your bills on time matter to your credit score, they believe that test scores should be one part and grades another, and then leadership and growth to measure a school’s accountability.

Williams said colleges use more than his class rank and GPA to accept him, Texas needs to use more tools to evaluate how schools are doing.