Press Summary

[Carol Holst <kceh@airmail.net>]

TEXANS FOR QUALITY ASSESSMENT AUSTIN RALLY

JANUARY 25, 2003 3:00 =96 5:00 PM

SOUTH LAWN OF THE CAPITOL BUILDING

Coordinator: Elaine Hampton, 915-373-3627, texastesting@msn.com

More information on our webpage: www.texastesting.org

SUMMARY FOR THE PRESS

As the rest of the nation moves toward the Texas educational model driven by a
test, Texas educators and parents are struggling to move away from test-driven
education.

Members of Texans for Quality Assessment seek and support high quality public
education and reasonable and appropriate ways to assess that education. Our
organization includes working parents, stay-at-home parents, home-school parents,
students, teachers, administrators, professors, lawyers and school board members
from all areas of Texas.

We believe that for too long, critical decisions about how children=92s learning
is assessed have been made by people with little or no background or experience
in education=97and with no real understanding of what is at stake. Their
decisions have driven our curriculum into short-answer drills and months of test
preparation activities. And worse, their decisions have slammed the door of
opportunity in the faces of many Texas learners. This has to change.

The use of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) for promotion,
retention, placement and graduation violates the standards of teaching and the
principles of best practice recommended by professional education and evaluation
organizations. Many have published position papers against such uses of a
high-stakes test. They include the American Educational Research Association,
American Psychological

Association, National Council on Measurement in Education, National Research
Council, National Association for the Education of Young Children, National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics, National Science Teachers Association,
National Council of Teachers of English, National Council for the Social Studies,
National Middle School Association,

International Reading Association, and the National Parent Teachers Association.

Our concern about the use of TAKS results does not mean that we are opposed to
high standards or to a system of accountability in our schools. We support
multiple, quality, appropriate measures and practices that will meaningfully and
honestly evaluate student learning. We know how to implement such assessments in
our schools in a way that will benefit=97not punish=97Texas children. This is our
area of expertise. We insist that policy makers listen to us. We demand that they
not only repeal the present debilitating legislation but also reject any future
legislation that uses a single test to make the god-like decisions that cause
damaging and lasting effects on our children and on the quality of

education in Texas.

The legislation proposals by Representative Dora Olivo (below) are important
steps to improve Texas testing. We want our legislators to know that a large
group of Texas educators and parents insist on moving away from one high-stakes
testing instrument toward a quality assessment system that supports good
education.

HB336--Multiple Compensatory Criteria at the Exit/Graduation Level=20

http://www.capitol.state.tx.=
us/cgi-bin/tlo/textframe.cmd?LEG=3D77&SESS=3DR&CHAMBER=3DH&BILLTYPE=3DB&BIL=
LSUFFIX=3D02118&VERSION=3D3&TYPE=3DB=20

HB337=97Multiple Compensatory Criteria at the Social Promotion Gates (3, 5, & 8)

http://www.capitol.state.tx.=
us/cgi-bin/tlo/textframe.cmd?LEG=3D77&SESS=3DR&CHAMBER=3DH&BILLTYPE=3DB&BIL=
LSUFFIX=3D02570&VERSION=3D3&TYPE=3DB

JUST A SMALL SAMPLE OF THE COMMENTS WE RECEIVE:(contact information is provided)

I am a former third grade teacher of 13 years and left the profession partly
because of the emphasis on testing. =A0Mary Ziolkowski Vic2mary@aol.com

I have 2 daughters in HISD.=A0One in the 5th, the other in the 7th.=A0 I have
learned through the years that HISD puts more emphasis on passing the TAAS than
any other aspect of education.=A0 According to them, the reason the children are
in school is to learn how to pass tests.=A0 Teachers, principals, and
administrators are judged based on how high a score the students make.=A0 The joy
of learning has been lost.=A0 I am very against their approach to "education" and
am in complete support of your cause.=A0

David Williams dww@aaahawk.com

A parent of a third grader and a seventh grader who is opposed to the high stakes
testing because:

-of how it is impoverishing our curriculum, removing all possibility for creative
and critical thinking;

-of how it is driving away the best teachers in droves (AISD's attrition rate
last year was over 40%);

-of how it is creating tremendous stress for our children, who are learning to
evaluate their minds by how they do on a multiple choice test;

-it is enriching these test manufacturers by undisclosed amounts, money acutely
needed in the schools.=A0 How much are we spending on testing each child?=A0=20

Leila Levinson leilalevinson@yahoo.com

A Houston father writes: My daughter is in the 5th grade at HISD.=A0 At the end
of the 4th grade we were informed she would have to go to summer school.=A0
Why?=A0 Because she scored a 4.2, not a 4.6 as was required on the Stanford
test.=A0 So, she was forced to go to summer school or not be promoted because of
.4 difference of a point on one test.=A0 This is a girl who passed the TASS and
had post high school scores in Verbal on the=A0test.=A0Another victim of testing.

A couple of years ago, my son and I relocated to Texas.=A0 When I began to hear
information about the school testing, it created a great deal of concern for
several reasons.=A0 I think it's an incredible amount of pressure to put on a
child to expect them to take this test knowing that it's pass or fail, no matter
how well they've done in school that year.=A0 There are kids that test very well
and are mediocre students and then there are great students who "freeze up" when
testing and do very poorly.=A0 I=A0also have a client who's son is in 3rd grade,
he's an A student, but did poorly on the prep exam at the beginning of the
year.=A0 They are now pulling him out of his regular classes to prepare him=A0for
the TAKS test.=A0 This is OUTRAGEOUS.=A0 What can be done?

Andrea Homsher (512) 413-4658=A0

I first became interested in fighting the test after I tutored two senior girls
at my school. Both were from Mexico, both were incredibly hard working and
wonderful =96 a teacher's dream, to be honest. Neither had passed the test
despite good grades and hard work. Their

graduation was on the line, so they came to me for after school tutoring two or
three times a week. They even came on Saturdays! Very dedicated. Very
respectful.=20

Anyway, this was spring, one of the last times seniors can take the TAAS to
graduate on time. I proctored the test and the writing prompt said something like
"Do you think actors/actresses make good role models?"=20

One of the girls raised her hand with a panicked look on her face. She called me
over to ask a question. "Miss," she said with fear in her eyes, "I do not know
this word-- role model."=20

I almost cried as I told her I couldn't help her. She knew how to write a five
paragraph essay, she knew how to write in English, how to write an introduction,
etc.. But she didn't know one idiomatic phrase, role model.=20=20

Deborah Kelt =20 duckelt@yahoo.com=20

Audrey L. Amrein and David C. Berli of Arizona State University recently
published their research, The Impact of High-Stakes Tests on Student Academic
Performance. This study looked at data from 28 states where high-stakes testing
programs are already in place and found no systemic evidence of improved
achievement after states implemented high-stakes testing programs.
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