Austin’s Children Deserve More Than A Test Score, by María del Carmen Unda & Raul Longoria

Congratulations to Dr. María del Carmen Unda and Raul Longoria for this powerful and timely piece in the Texas Observer. You’ve spoken a truth we have long known: test scores measure poverty far more reliably than they measure learning. 

So why punish the very children and communities already carrying the heaviest burdens—other than to continue filing the deep, bottomless pockets of the testing industrial complex?

Thank you for lifting up the voices of Austin’s students, families, and educators, and for reminding us that partnership—not punishment—is the path to real educational justice.

-Angela Valenzuela

Austin’s Children Deserve More Than A Test Score: The city's “F” schools overwhelmingly serve mostly low-income African-American and Hispanic children 

by María del Carmen Unda & Raul Longoria | September 24, 2025 | Texas Observer

Earlier this month, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced that 12 Austin-area schools with an “F” rating could be closed. For many families, this isn’t just a policy decision—it’s a direct threat to thousands of children’s educational stability and their communities’ future. 

The affected schools, all part of Austin Independent School District (AISD) received three consecutive failing grades under the state’s accountability system tied to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam. TEA ordered the campuses to submit improvement plans by mid-November, which could involve major staffing changes or closures. The schools include Winn Montessori, Barrington, Dawson, Linder, Oak Springs, Pecan Springs, Sanchez, Widen, Wooldridge, Bedichek, Martin, and Paredes. As education researchers and community advocates, we know that school ratings often reveal more about poverty than about student learning. Decades of research show that standardized tests don’t measure intellect, creativity, or resilience. They measure zip codes. Numerous studies also highlight the direct ties between the testing industry and the prison industrial complex.

The problem is clear: Austin’s “F” schools overwhelmingly serve mostly low-income African-American and Hispanic children. Closing them on the basis of a flawed metric sends one message: Your community does not matter. 

SCHOOL BUSES IN AUSTIN (SHUTTERSTOCK)

More specifically, data from the Texas Academic Performance Report outlines that the twelve Austin ISD campuses at risk of closure or major intervention serve predominantly low-income African-American and Hispanic student populations (see a full chart here): At these campuses, between 78 percent and 97 percent of students are classified as economically disadvantaged, with most schools exceeding 90 percent. This strongly suggests that socioeconomic status, not instructional quality, is the most consistent predictor of school ratings. Research has long demonstrated that poverty shapes educational outcomes through limited access to resources, higher mobility rates, and increased exposure to stressors outside of school. The racial and ethnic composition of these same schools is between 57 percent and 91 percent Hispanic, while African-American enrollment ranges from 1.9 percent to nearly 39 percent. The clustering of F-rated schools in predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods highlights the racialized nature of standardized testing outcomes, aligning with scholarship that critiques accountability systems as mechanisms that reproduce racial and class stratification. 

TEA’s accountability system disproportionately penalizes schools that serve economically disadvantaged students of color. All twelve schools identified for improvement or closure received failing (“F”) ratings, yet their student demographics highlight structural inequities rather than deficiencies in teaching or learning. 

Parents and teachers have long known what research confirms: Standardized testing is a poor predictor of success. It rewards test-taking strategies, not curiosity. It privileges students with resources, tutors, and stability at home, while penalizing those navigating poverty, language barriers, or trauma. 

Standardized testing has become a billion-dollar business. In 2013, TEA awarded Pearson a $462 million contract, followed by a $280 million contract with Education Testing Services. Nationally, 45 states spend a combined $669 million annually on testing contracts. These corporations reap massive profits, yet there is no evidence that more standardized testing improves student learning or narrows achievement gaps. What these tests do measure—reliably—is the ability of corporations to siphon resources away from Texas students, teachers, and communities.

Instead of doubling down on testing, TEA should reduce the number of exams and provide real support. Before closing schools, the agency must engage communities in honest conversations about what children need to thrive—whether it’s more bilingual staff, smaller classes, or after-school programs. 

Austin’s children deserve more than a test score. Closing schools will not build stronger communities. Listening to them will. TEA must choose partnership over punishment. 

A growing body of scholarship urges states to move beyond single test scores and adopt multiple measures of accountability. Such systems better capture the breadth of student learning by incorporating graduation rates, college and career readiness, access to qualified teachers, and school climate. Authentic assessments—such as project- and portfolio-based evaluations—offer viable alternatives that measure higher-order thinking and student creativity while remaining compliant with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which explicitly authorizes states to integrate portfolios, extended performance tasks, and adaptive assessments into their accountability systems. Despite this flexibility, Texas continues to rely almost exclusively on high-stakes standardized tests, ignoring well-established recommendations for more equitable, comprehensive approaches to evaluating student learning and school quality. 

At the state policy level, Texas must fundamentally rethink accountability. Policymakers, TEA, and school leaders should establish school-based teams to collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data, ensuring that decisions are grounded in the realities of students, families, and educators. 

These efforts must prioritize schools with the greatest needs and the fewest resources, offering sustained support rather than punitive closures. Specifically, TEA should end costly assessment contracts with for-profit corporations and redirect those funds into classrooms, counseling services, culturally relevant curricula, and community engagement initiatives that actually strengthen schools. 

Dr. MARÍA DEL CARMEN UNDA is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas. Her research examines education policymaking and access in K–12 schools, with a focus on the experiences of students of color.

Raul ‘Neto’ Longoria is a candidate for the Texas State Board of Education, District 5. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and he has dedicated his career to Austin ISD as a bilingual special education teacher and parent support specialist.

Gavel Down, Mic Drop: Rep. Vincent Pérez Ends Session with Facts

Gavel Down, Mic Drop: Rep. Vincent Pérez Ends Session 

with Facts

Sine Die might be Latin for “the end,” a towering Rep. Vincent Pérez stood firm—not just in opposition, but in defense of democracy. He made damn sure the 89th Second Special Session of the Texas Legislature didn’t close without a reckoning—to which the video below attests and about which Substack author Michelle H. Davis writes.

While Republicans used this session to pass gerrymandered maps, ramp up voter suppression, and double down on attacks against women, trans people, students, and anyone who doesn’t fit neatly into their dystopian playbook— it was Rep. Pérez who reminded Texans what public service is supposed to look like.

Before the gavel dropped, Republicans introduced HR 128—a petty, authoritarian stunt masquerading as a rule change. The goal? Punish future quorum breakers with everything from fines and budget cuts to taking away parking spots like this was high school. But Rep. Pérez wasn’t having it. He stood up and made it clear: this wasn’t about enforcing “duty.” It was about silencing dissent.

And he said so — loud and unapologetically.

Rep. Vincent Pérez

“This is not discipline for a member, but disenfranchisement for the people who sent them here.”

He didn't stop there.

When Rep. Tony Tinderholt tried to derail the conversation — turning it into a petty debate about per diems and attendance—Pérez flipped the script.

“The maps before this body were the most segregated since the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It was my duty to stand up against that injustice.”

Then came the knockout punch. When Tinderholt pushed harder on the per diem issue, Pérez fired back with a line that deserves to be carved into the chamber walls:

“There are representatives on both sides of the aisle, both republicans and democrats, who sit in this chamber who collect the $221...and are about as useful as the chairs they sit on.”

It was more than a zinger. It was a gut-check—not just for Tinderholt, but for everyone watching this session spiral into yet another exercise in intimidation disguised as governance.

Let’s be clear: Pérez didn’t just win the argument. He reframed it. He forced the chamber to confront the moral rot at the heart of what the Texas GOP is doing — from rigging maps and expanding the STAAR test, to criminalizing abortion and policing public restrooms.

He called out structural racism. He defended the right to dissent. He reminded everyone that elected office belongs to the people—not to the party in power.

In a session defined by fear, fascism, and manufactured outrage, Rep. Vincent Pérez stood apart.

We need more of that. More fire. More clarity. More courage.

So yes, Sine Die — this special session is over. But if Texas is going to have any kind of democratic future, voices like Pérez’s can’t just echo in the chamber. They need to echo across the state.

Because dissent isn’t disorder. It’s democracy.

And Rep. Vincent Pérez just gave us all a masterclass in both.

-Angela Valenzuela

Sine Death To Democracy

The Texas Legislature called Sine Die on the 89th Second Special Session. How bad is the damage?

MICHELLE H. DAVIS
SEP 04, 2025



Two weeks into the 30-day special session, Republicans decided they’ve done all the damage they can do for now and called Sine Die late last night.

But did they pass flood relief?

SB3 mandates outdoor warning sirens in Texas flood-risk areas. It uses state grants to help pay for sirens, but makes them legally required for local governments in disaster-designated regions. SB5 is a funding bill for Texas’s FEMA match and disaster needs, gauges, as well as forecasting and weather technology.

Both of these bills passed both chambers unanimously.

Several bills regarding disaster preparedness died. Another bill that was debated aimed to synchronize communication equipment (walkie-talkies and radios) across agencies. That bill died, too.

SB1 prevents youth camps from getting licensed if cabins are in a floodplain. HB1 overlaps with SB1 but is somewhat broader in accountability and enforcement.

Is it enough? Would it have prevented the July 4th tragedies? Will it prevent more tragedies in the future? The sirens are needed. The gauges are needed. Changing the license and regulation requirements for youth camps is needed.

Republicans wanted to premise this special session (and last) as flood relief, even though it was all about a power grab for the pedophile protectors in DC. That was their “emergency items.” It ought to be enough for them NOT to call a third special session. 

Vince Perez (D-HD77) was definitely the breakout star of the Second Special Session.

He did it again last night. Before Republicans called it quits on the Special Session last night, they introduced HR128 to “punish” would-be quorum breakers. Higher fines, censure, loss of seniority, loss of operating budget, loss of chairmanships, loss of parking places, and a bunch of other nonsense.

Representative Perez did not hold back. He reminded members that their oath of office wasn’t about perks or power, but about stewardship and that every seat in the chamber belongs not to the politician, but to the people who sent them there. Perez said, a direct attack on the communities Republicans don’t value, “not discipline for a member, but disenfranchisement for the people who sent them here.”

Then came the clash with Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-HD94). True to form, Tinderholt tried to boil the whole debate down to money and duty. Where was Perez during the quorum break? Shouldn’t he be in Austin? Shouldn’t he pay taxpayers back for the per diem?

Perez wasn’t having it. He turned the conversation right back to the root cause: “The maps before this body were the most segregated since the 1965 Voting Rights Act,” he said. “It was my duty to stand up against that injustice.” Perez hammered Tinderholt for defending maps that give white Texans three times the political power of Latinos and five times that of Black Texans, calling it what it was. Structural disenfranchisement.

When Tinderholt pressed him on the $221-a-day per diem, Perez cut deep. “There are people in this chamber who collect the 221 bucks and are about as useful as the chairs they sit on,” he said. And reminded everyone (most of all Tarrant County residents) how Tinderholt is leaving the Legislature to run for a county commissioner seat stolen from the Black community.

Perez flipped the attack into a full indictment of GOP gerrymandering, racism, and small-minded politics. It was a reminder that while the GOP is busy rewriting House rules to punish dissent, Democrats like Perez are the ones reminding Texans why dissent matters.

So, what else did Republicans do in this special session?

They passed the gerrymandered maps. Then, a resolution was passed to punish would-be quorum breakers.

They passed HB8, which expands the STAAR test. Yes, you heard that right. Texans wanted the state to eliminate the STAAR test. Instead, they expanded it, quadrupling the number of tests students will have to take in a year. Every Republican voted in favor of it. The Democrats who joined them:

Cesar Blanco (SD29)

Chuy Hinojosa (SD29)

HB7 passed. This bill bans the manufacturing, mailing, prescribing, or distributing of abortion pills in Texas and creates $100,000 bounties on women who take them. Because our maternal mortality rate is higher in Texas than anywhere else in the developed world, and Republicans want more women to die. Chuy Hinojosa was the only Democrat who voted in favor of this bill.

Then, of course, the Republicans enacted the “Pee Pee Police” bill with SB8. This bill segregates bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and other multi-user facilities strictly by biological sex. While they haven’t done it yet, they always add to their oppression each session. So, if we don’t flip the House in 2026, expect that in 2027 Republicans will be looking to station a DPS officer at the door of every public restroom in Texas, to look under the skirts of suspected transgender women.

SB12 gives the Texas Attorney General direct authority to prosecute all criminal offenses under Texas election law. But now that Paxton’s leaving office, they’re just hoping to get lucky with another crook in office to target people of color and the elderly with made-up crimes again.

Of course, there was also HB25, which makes Ivermectin available over the counter.

SB54 makes it harder for voters who have recently moved to cast a full ballot because it would be a Legislative Session, special or regular, without some form of Republican voter suppression. Renters, students, and low-income people who move often will be disproportionately disenfranchised. Which means we have to work twice as hard to register those voters, y’all.

HB26 allows sheriffs and constables in Harris County to contract directly with local governments (cities, MUDs, school districts, etc.), property owners’ associations, and private landowners. It prohibits the Harris County Commissioners’ Court from stopping or restricting these contracts. HB192 prevents Harris County from reducing police budgets without a countywide election, as enforced by the governor’s office and comptroller. This is part of the broader GOP playbook to punish and control Harris County (the state’s most populous Democratic stronghold).

Then there was HB16, which flew under the radar despite its size. It’s a judiciary “clean-up and reorganization” bill. It makes hundreds of tweaks across the court system, touching everything from judicial districts to clerk duties, salaries, jurisdiction, and municipal court security.

SB18 creates a new permit exemption in Texas water law. It cuts regulatory red tape for small, locally operated flood-control dams. I see both good and the potential for harm in this bill, and I always worry about anything framed as “deregulation.” However, the Sierra Club testified in favor of it.

SB11 gives victims of sex trafficking a legal shield in court, ensuring that juries can consider coercion as a defense. It was ironic that it was passed, considering the party in charge is the same party protecting the Epstein pedophile ring in DC. But I suspect they just tacked this one in there to pretend like they were actually doing something good for the people of Texas.
When you stack it all up, Texans didn’t get real flood relief, didn’t get accountability, didn’t get protection from the next disaster.

What we got was more criminalization, more voter suppression, more privatized policing, more attacks on women, kids, and trans people, and more power consolidated in the hands of a Republican Party that governs like the Constitution is optional. This was a session about control. The fascist drumbeats of Republican rule grow louder with every session, every new map, every gag order on dissent.

So let’s call it what it was. Another round of Republican cruelty packaged as governance. And let’s pray it stays dead until 2027.

Op-Ed: Our schools, teachers deserve accountability reform by K. Moulton & A. Valenzuela

We desperately need educational accountability and assessment reform in Texas and here is how Raise Your Hand Texas (RYHT) is leading this legislative session. Then scroll down below to read my co-authored op-ed with Kelli Moulton of RYHT. All of this falls on the heels of advocacy last week as follows (from RYHT's Friday, April 21 Weekly update):

On Thursday, the Texas House Committee on Public Education heard 

 (Bell, K.) and (Allison). Both bills improve the public school assessment and accountability system by limiting the effect of STAAR tests on school district and campus A-F ratings. The bills also add new non-STAAR indicators to the A-F rating calculations in order to paint a more holistic picture of school quality.

Today, Friday, April 21, HB 4402 was voted out favorably from the Texas House Commitee on Public Education. The bill now moves to the Calendars Committee, where members of that committee will schedule a date for the entire House of Representatives to vote on the bill. Here are some key provisions of each bill:

Committee Substitute HB 4402

HB 4402

HB 4514

• Adds three new non-test indicators: Extra- and co-curricular success, parent and student satisfaction, and participation in middle school accelerated math
• Prohibits STAAR scores from accounting for more than 80% of elementary and middle school accountability ratings
• Formalizes through-year assessments starting in 2027-28 school year
• ISDs may offer the STAAR tests in paper format to no more than 1% of their enrolled students
• Creates grants for the development of local accountability systems
• Creates an extra- and co-curricular allotment

Committee Substitute HB 4514: 

• Removes the social studies STAAR test in grade eight
• Adds new PK-8 indicators starting in the 2023-24 school year, including access to enrichment curriculum, participation in extra- and co-curricular activities, state-developed school and student safety surveys, teacher mentoring programs and professional development, chronic absenteeism rates, participation in full-day pre-K, completion of career and technical education courses, and completion of advanced courses
• Removes the overall, aggregate A-F district and campus performance rating
• Prohibits STAAR scores to account for more than 50% of any A-F rating

The research cited within on the public's attitudes toward schools, testing, and accountability is accessible on this February 4, 2022 blog post titled, "Connected Through Our Schools" [Report] on Strong Public Support for Public Education in Texas. Texans with children in schools strongly support public education, in general. Now let's move the needle further and be more holistic and complex in our assessments and understandings of student performance and school performance together with the ratings that attach to them.

Sí se puede! Yes we can!

-Angela Valenzuela

Opinion: Our schools, teachers deserve accountability reform

Kelli Moulton and Angela Valenzuela

April 23, 2023 | Op-Ed | Austin American Statesman

April marks the beginning of STAAR testing season for Texas public school students, and it’s also the start of the final two months of the Texas legislative session. 

We have an opportunity to reimagine a critically important system of public school accountability to ensure greater transparency, reduce the overreliance on one test to assess students, teachers and campuses, and provide a more holistic, meaningful assessment of school performance and student preparation for future success.

Last year we celebrated the gains Texas students demonstrated after two years of online or interrupted in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. We saw students in grades 3-8 notch improved scores in reading and math, a credit to the grit and perseverance of students and their teachers. The progress of our students has impacted their campuses, with 33% of schools and 25% of school districts across the state improving their respective Texas Education Agency (TEA) ratings since the last time ratings were given in 2019.

While we should celebrate the academic gains made under challenging circumstances, we may want to question whether new TEA ratings tell parents everything they want and need to know about their child’s school. Under the current system, our elementary and middle school campuses receive their A-F rating from the TEA based entirely on the STAAR Test – one test, taken on one day. Texas’ accountability system neglects other important measures of how a campus contributes to a students’ academic growth, as well as any measure that would give insight into students’ mental health, campus culture or safety, family engagement, or teacher quality. 

A single test cannot measure what matters about our students’ academic success and campus effectiveness. We can and must do better.

Thankfully, state lawmakers have a chance to improve the system by hearing and passing several key bills, some which reflect an evidence-based and comprehensive effort to examine and recommend improvements to the state’s accountability system for public schools.

For more than 18 months, Measure What Matters connected with more than 15,600 parents, teachers, students, business leaders, policy experts and community leaders to learn what should be added to the equation for a more thorough, thoughtful and useful system of testing and accountability. 

Among the four key findings of this effort that are addressed in pending legislation: The state overemphasizes the STAAR tests in its current accountability system. High-stakes consequences of one test on one day place unnecessary, excessive pressure on students. By excluding highly valuable indicators of school quality and performance, parents receive an incomplete assessment of a school’s and student’s performance. A single, averaged letter grade of A-F oversimplifies the work of teachers, students and campus leaders. 

Yes, Texans believe in accountability. We can and should assess our public schools and students, but we can and must do better in doing so. More than 80% of respondents to Raise Your Hand Texas’ survey said they do not believe the STAAR test alone can effectively determine if their child’s school is good or not, and only 1% felt like the STAAR was a very accurate measure of school quality.

As lawmakers finish their work in Austin this spring, let’s encourage them to measure what matters and do right by public schools and their students.

Moulton serves as the Measure What Matters Council Chair, as well as executive superintendent at the Texas Association of School Administrators. Valenzuela is a professor at the University of Texas.

Dear Texas Parents:

This would be the year for your child to opt out of standardized ("STAAR") testing. The test scores won't mean anything anyway.  Garbage in, garbage out.

Plus, I find this whole "learning loss" discourse to be deficit-oriented.  It's not like children haven't been learning throughout the pandemic. Perhaps some of the greatest, most enduring lessons in their lives will have been learned as a consequence of having gone through this character-building, upending experience. As per an earlier post, school administrators and teachers would do well to not only avoid deficit thinking, but to move forward in a constructive manner by instead asking the following:

“Instead of segregating these children and trying to give them what they didn’t learn, you say to yourself, ‘What must they know in order to stick with their peers and have access to next week’s lesson?’” said David Steiner, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and former education commissioner for New York state. “The key is you’re always asking yourself, ‘What do they need for next week?’ not ‘What did they miss?’”

One doesn't need to administer a test that still doesn't answer these much more important questions that teachers need to be asking. Plus, as Dr. David DeMatthews in my Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at UT-Austin who is quoted below, students should be evaluated holistically anyway. 

Hopefully, school administrators and teachers will remember to ask and keep asking and discovering—and having students reflect on and write about—what this epic COVID experience of storm, stress, and survival meant for them, their families, and community.

Sadly, even though this testing regime robs students and teachers of precious instructional time, I would still ask them to not squander this opportunity for us to learn from our youth. This is a time to care for, and not judge, them with this over-played, de-humanizing instrument of policy. 

-Angela Valenzuela

#OptOut #STAAR

Texas students can only take STAAR tests in person. These families plan to opt out.

Test results aren’t worth the anxiety of an on-campus exam, some parents say.

By Emily Donaldson

5:00 AM on Mar 1, 2021

Mack and Elizabeth Simpson pose with their daughter Carson Simpson, an eighth-grader at West Junior High School, outside their home, Friday, February 26, 2021 in Richardson, Texas. The Simpsons are choosing to not have Carson take the STAAR test this spring due to COVID concerns. Mack, who is immunocompromised, called the prospect of Carson taking the test in person “a bridge too far.” (Jeffrey McWhorter/Special Contributor)(Jeffrey McWhorter / Special Contributor)

Dan Cooper’s grandson spent the last year as a boy in a bubble.

The eighth grader deals with respiratory health issues, uses two inhalers a day and occasionally requires a nebulizer. He is one of the few students at his Hill Country-area middle school who has remained a remote learner since the pandemic hit last March.

The Ingram school district Cooper’s grandson attends made a push for all in-person learning earlier this school year. After some cussing and raising of hell, an exception was made for the eighth grader to remain at home. And that’s not going to change because of STAAR, Cooper said.

This week federal officials told states that the Department of Education wouldn’t waive assessment requirements as was done last year after COVID-19 suddenly forced campuses to shut down. Texas schools will begin administering the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exams in late March and early April, but the tests will be offered only in person at schools or alternate sites.

But Cooper’s grandson — and thousands more like him — won’t be there as they opt out of STAAR.

“The concerns are fairly obvious,” Cooper said. “There are health risks during a pandemic to go on campus, particularly when you’re accustomed to not being there. It creates certain anxiety levels that adds to the pressure of test taking.”

“The concerns are fairly obvious,” Cooper said. “There are health risks during a pandemic to go on campus, particularly when you’re accustomed to not being there. It creates certain anxiety levels that adds to the pressure of test taking.”

Educators and a large group of lawmakers have called for the state to shelve the exams in recent months because of the pandemic’s disruptions and the related stress students and teachers are experiencing. Education Commissioner Mike Morath, however, maintains that the state needs the tests to identify how much learning loss students face after such a disruptive year.

Federal officials gave similar reasons for wanting such assessments to continue but did give states the flexibility to adapt exams –– tests can be shortened, offered remotely, or delayed into the summer or the beginning of the next school year.

Texas did not announce plans to implement any of these flexibilities for STAAR in updated state guidance released Thursday. The state did extend the testing window for English language learners taking Texas’ alternative exam for such students.

In-person exams level the playing field so students all have the same testing environment, state officials said. If students took the exams from home, they might have to deal with internet outages, distractions or varying levels of help from nearby adults.

Schools are preparing for testing days by creating more space on campus so students can be spread out, said Melissa Steger, Grand Prairie ISD’s chief data and information systems officer. Campuses also have the option to send students not testing to learn from home.

Still, districts expect some students to opt out of the exam altogether.

“Obviously we’re going to do everything in our power to get as many of our students to come and to participate,” Steger said. “We know what we’re up against, and we know that much of the state is up against the same struggles.”

With STAAR tests rapidly approaching and more than 40% of students still learning remotely, participation will likely drop.

Wylie ISD students Sydney Sanders (right), 13, and her brother Jacob (left), 16, with their parents Justin (center left) and Shari at a park near their home in Sachse on Friday, February 26, 2021. (Stewart F. House/Special Contributor)(Stewart F. House / Special Contributor)

Data and equity

Both federal and state officials say tests are necessary to ensure equity for students — essentially, if you don’t test everyone on the same material, you can’t ensure each student learned the same thing or was held to the same standards.

Morath pitched the exam as a helpful tool to diagnose students’ needs during a turbulent academic year.

“If we don’t know where [students] are, then how do we know how effectively to support them?” Morath said in a recent Texas Tribune interview. “How do we know to make these grand sets of changes that we will need to make to honor our moral commitment to children?”

In a normal year, participation rates top 99%, Morath said at a Feb. 22 Senate committee meeting. Texas won’t get anywhere close to that this year, he noted.

Many states will grapple with uneven participation rates, Chris Domaleski said. Domaleski is the associate director for the Center for Assessment, a nonprofit that helps states and districts design and implement assessment and accountability programs.

The variation in who and how many students take exams will make comparing results from this year to previous ones a challenge.

“Reporting in context becomes particularly important,” he said. Education agencies should note factors like the learning method a school or student operated in for the majority of the year and the number of students who tested, he said.

David DeMatthews, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s department of educational leadership and policy, predicted that the turnout of the state’s most vulnerable students could suffer.

“It’s not exactly clear who’s going to be missing … but it’s likely that the people who are most affected by COVID and people who are experiencing poverty in some ways, they’d be the ones that are least likely to attend,” DeMatthews said.

Other ways to assess students provide a more holistic picture of performance, the UT professor suggested. Some North Texas parents agree.

Richardson ISD parent Elizabeth Simpson concedes that her eighth grade daughter’s STAAR results typically align with her favorite and least favorite subjects. However, she doesn’t believe it is a great benchmarking tool compared to others.

For instance, several districts conducted MAP, or Measurement of Academic Progress, testing this year, creating a baseline for students and families to understand academic performance. The test is administered online and adapts questions based on the students’ knowledge and skills.

MAP results showed Dallas ISD leaders that half of students experienced learning loss in math and one-third lagged in reading.

If students could take STAAR online, Simpson’s decision would be different, but because the tests are only available in person, she feels her choice is straightforward.

“We’ve been declining to send her in person all year, and we don’t feel like the STAAR test is a compelling enough reason to send her,” Simpson said.

Wylie ISD parent Shari Sanders hasn’t wavered in her decision to keep her eighth and 10th grade students at home for the remainder of the school year.

Sanders doesn’t buy the argument that the exams are necessary to evaluate students. The time and resources necessary to bring in remote learners for in-person exams could be used to catch kids up, she said.

Plus, schools “will try to put as many safety measures in place as possible but when you get the kids who aren’t used to being in person, they don’t know the routines,” she said. “I think there are some additional risks that aren’t necessary.”

High stakes removed?

Opting out of the exam during a regular year brings consequences for many students. This year, the state removed almost all of the high stakes associated with the exams.

Students in fifth and eighth grade who normally have to pass their STAAR tests to advance to the next grade level won’t face the same requirement because the governor waived it. Texas also won’t assign campuses or districts letter grades for academic accountability that are largely based on student performance.

New TEA guidance notes that districts may be subject to agency review if there are “excessive absences.” Excessive was not defined in the document.

The only remaining stake impacts high school students, who have to pass three of five end-of-course exams to graduate. If they don’t pass these tests, they are ineligible for graduation.

The state assumed every high schooler who passed their class last year passed their exam. But the same provision is not in place this year, and Morath doesn’t have the power to waive the requirement, he said. The governor or lawmakers can remove this mandate but have yet to do so.

By senior year, most students have already taken all of their end-of-course tests. That means that younger high school students could be most impacted by delaying their end-of-course tests until months or years after they have taken the associated class, Grand Prairie’s Steger said.

Some parents, like Tamala Daniels, see the fear surrounding in-person learning as its own high stake.

Daniels’ son Louis is an eighth grader in Troup ISD and one of a smaller group of students still learning remotely in the district located south of Tyler. Louis doesn’t want to be around others at school after witnessing several relatives contract the virus and his campus close for three weeks because of COVID-19 exposures and a substitute shortage.

When Troup Middle School required Louis to come onto campus for some tests earlier this year, Daniels said, she told Louis “keep your mouth closed, stay away from others, don’t talk to anybody. Just go in there, take your test, and call me when you’re finished.”

That’s what he did, but still, Louis was scared he was going to get sick.

Seeing her son respond with fear made Daniels’ decision clear. For Louis, taking the STAAR isn’t worth it.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, The Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.

Emily Donaldson, staff writer. Emily is an education reporter for Education Lab at The Dallas Morning News.

emily.donaldson@dallasnews.com emilyjdonaldson