Educators want TAKS to count progress

By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE | Houston Chronicle
May 13, 2008

Texas students should be measured on gains they make throughout the school year, rather than facing punitive measures if they fail to clear the hurdles set by the state's standardized test, educators and community leaders told legislators Monday.

Making progress on the test, they argue, is a more important indicator that students and teachers are trying their hardest. It would also take pressure off students, who can currently be retained or kept from graduating if they don't pass certain parts of the exam, educators told members of the Select Committee on Public School Accountability during a public hearing in Aldine.

About 100 people attended the hearing, one in a series being held by the 15-member panel on how the state's Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills testing system should be changed.

"We are mindfully listening and internalizing all the testimony," Brownsville ISD deputy superintendent Beto Gonzales said.

Legislators already opted to replace high school-level TAKS tests with end-of-course exams, a move they hope will provide a more accurate read of what students are learning.

Houston mother Thelma de la Cruz, whose son is a fourth-grader at Harvard Elementary, said TAKS testing has left her family "exhausted, pressured and embattled."

"Students bear the weight of testing on their shoulders all year," said de la Cruz, who said her son is in therapy because of TAKS stress.

Jefferson Davis High School senior Jesus Santoya said state testing puts him in a constant state of worry.

"It is scary to know that if I don't meet some certain standards, it makes me, my teachers, my school and my family look bad," the 18-year-old said.

Aldine Superintendent Wanda Bamberg told the panel that they need to reduce the number of tests given, measure districts against those with similar demographics and better align the state's accountability system with the federal No Child Left Behind law.

She also supports the idea of moving to a statewide "value-added" system — or looking at the growth students make over the school year.

"That's the layer of the onion we need to peel," she said.