By Zahira Torres / El Paso Times
03/30/2008
After at least a week of sleeping late and watching extra television programs, thousands of public school students, who are returning to school Monday, will begin preparing for next month's TAKS testing.
Students in grades third through 11th, and seniors who have yet to pass the exit level exam, in the county's nine school districts and charter schools will take at least one part of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test in April.
"Before we were leaving, we were already doing a lot of TAKS," Denise Gomez, an eighth grader at Clarke Middle School, said. "This past nine weeks, we've just been TAKS, TAKS, TAKS. Our math teacher, Mr. Quijano, he's actually been a lot of help because math is my worst subject, I don't know why, but he's been giving us TAKS practices from last year and he actually gave us a booklet for spring break to do."
Fifth and eighth graders, who will continue preparing for the test when they return to school, will initiate next month's TAKS testing by taking the math part April 8. Both grade levels must pass this part of the exam if they want to move on to sixth grade and ninth grade. If they fail, they will have two more chances to pass.
From April 29 to May 2, students in most grades will take TAKS tests in math, reading, science and social studies. Based on the scores, schools and districts will be rated academically unacceptable, academically acceptable, recognized or exemplary by the state.
Luz Garcia, the mother of two children, including Denise, said TAKS is a simple test and should not be feared by students, teachers or parents.
"It is good that they prepare them for the TAKS test but sometimes I wish they would focus on teaching other things that will be more helpful in real life than the TAKS test," Garcia said.
Canutillo Independent School District is one of many districts that have been vigorously preparing students for the test. Superintendent Pam Padilla said youngsters should have faith in what they have learned.
"Teachers are still working hard with individual students to nail down what their specific preparation needs to be in these last few weeks," Padilla said. "It's important to get the message to the students and the parents that the teachers know what is on this test. They are very adept at preparing the students and no one needs to be stressed at this point."
"You just keep working, and the students have been working all year for this, it's not just these last few weeks," Padilla said. "Everything they've done, the teachers have kept in the back of their minds that this test is coming up. So, it's important to kind of work against the tendency for stress to creep in and have confidence in your teacher and have confidence in what has been done so far."
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