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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

State needs haven for students who fail TAKS

EDITORIAL BOARD--AUSTIN AM-STATESMAN

Today's editorial lays out well the state's dilemma on TAKS testing in historical perspective. In reference to students who stayed in school and passed their courses, "Eleven percent, nearly 28,000 students, of the 2006 graduating class didn't get diplomas because they flunked the TAKS. That was their sixth try at passing it."

Here is what the editorial board recommends: "The Legislature should create an alternative diploma for TAKS refugees to allow students who have repeatedly failed the exit exam to appeal their situations and satisfy requirements in other ways. They could do that, for instance, by passing certain remedial or basic courses at a community college."

The legislature should also consider passing a multiple measures system whereby students that fail are evaluated on the basis of other criteria that can compensate for poor or failing test performance. State Rep. Dora Olivo (Fort Bend) has just filed such a bill--at the exit level, as well as at the levels (3, 5, & 8) affected by social promotion. -Angela




Tuesday, January 02, 2007
They are neither high school graduates nor dropouts. Let's call them TAKS refugees.

That's what we call Texas high school students who have completed all requirements to graduate and get their diplomas, save one: passing all four portions of Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, the state's exit exam. They roam from test to test trying to pass long after their classmates have collected their diplomas. Meanwhile, the futures of students who chronically flunk the exam are on hold. Without a diploma, they share dismal employment prospects with dropouts. Yet, like graduates, they stayed in school and passed their courses.

Thousands of Texas students end up in TAKS purgatory every year. In the 2005-06 school year, more than 39,000 students flunked. The only way out is by passing all sections of the TAKS that measures language arts, social studies, math and science skills. No one knows how many of those students ultimately jump that hurdle because school districts and the Texas Education Agency stop tracking them after awhile. What we do know is that the number of TAKS refugees, like compounding interest, balloons every year. Only those who continue taking the test are counted. Those who give up or pursue a GED disappear from state and local figures.

The Legislative mandate for a high stakes exit test created the dilemma. It's up to the Legislature fix the problem and this is a good time to do that.

For Texas students, exit testing is not new. The state has graduated several generations of Texans (since 1987) under the test requirement. But the test was easier and measured basic skills in fewer subjects. Sure, there was a small percentage of students who didn't pass and that was bad enough. Now the test is tougher and broader. Failures have spiked. Eleven percent, nearly 28,000 students, of the 2006 graduating class didn't get diplomas because they flunked the TAKS. That was their sixth try at passing it.

The growing numbers of TAKS failures have severe consequences for those students and for Texas.

Without a diploma, students are limited in their options for college and the work force. Those are the folks who tend to end up in minimum wage jobs, on welfare or in jail. They don't expand the tax base. They shrink it.

State higher education officials have told us we need tens of thousands more students in college and in job training to keep Texas competitive in the modern economy. That goal becomes ever more elusive if students are unable to obtain their high school diplomas.

There are several ways the Legislature can address the crisis. It starts with acknowledging the problem.

Debbie Graves Ratliffe, a TEA spokeswoman, suggested a voluntary registration system to help track those who don't pass the TAKS exit test. That would allow students to take the exam after they've left high school.

State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, wants to replace the TAKS in middle and high school with an end-of-year course exam in various subjects. Shapiro is thinking about using such an exam as an exit test. Exit tests should not be used to determine graduation. Even students who graduate in the top of their class are denied diplomas if they flunk the TAKS.

The Legislature should create an alternative diploma for TAKS refugees to allow students who have repeatedly failed the exit exam to appeal their situations and satisfy requirements in other ways. They could do that, for instance, by passing certain remedial or basic courses at a community college. Legislators should take action to give the TAKS refugees academic shelter.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/01/2/2taks_edit.html

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