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Education, Texas style
Effectiveness of yearly testing questioned
HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Standardized testing is a central focus for educators in Texas, but opinions are divided over what the tests really show. Such accountability testing is a key component of President George W. Bush's education plan. And it is to Texas that he points for an example.
Called TAAS, for Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, the tests are given to children every year from grades 3 to 8. They also are a requirement for high school graduation. In addition to students' progress, the tests are used as an evaluation tool for teachers, administrators and school systems. Scores have climbed -- from 53 percent of Texas schoolchildren passing in 1994 to 80 percent passing last year. While some point to this as success, critics suggest there is another reason for the increase. "It is really putting our best teachers and principals in a real box where they're having to choose between teaching a substantive curriculum or just teaching to a format that produces test scores," said Linda McNeil, a professor of education and co-director of Rice University's Center for Education. "The more the principal's worried about the test scores, the more they pressure the teachers to just use commercial practice test materials day after day rather than have the children read a science lesson, a short story (or) anything that you would consider purposeful reading." 'Teaching to the test'Some schools, such as Parker Elementary in Houston, perform quite well. A magnet school, Parker has a key music component. More than 90 percent of the school's students pass the mandatory TAAS test. Jim Nelson, Texas Commissioner of Education, called TAAS "probably the most important thing we've done in Texas in the last decade" to assess student progress. "Are there places where they focus too much on the tests? I'm sure that's true," Nelson said. "But I also think it's fair to say if they're teaching the curriculum and the tests cover the curriculum - and if everyone agrees these are the things we want our children to learn - what is it about being tested on that that's not appropriate?" What's not appropriate, critics say, is the sort of "teaching to the test" that sometimes happens because of pressure to perform. At Houston's Lamar High School, for example, sophomores preparing for the test learn how to write an essay, and how to get a passing score. Lamar Principal James McSwain said he feels the tests -- drill preparation and all -- are working. "I have to say in all honesty that education in Texas has improved, has drastically improved because of accountability, because of testing," said McSwain. Some researchers aren't so sure.
Dropout rates still highWalter Haney, a professor of educational evaluation at Boston College in Massachusetts, spent two years studying Texas schools. He said pressure to improve test scores inflates the results. "When you have such dramatic sanctions attached to test results, there are a lot of ways to raise average test scores without improving the actual learning of students," said Haney. "Unfortunately, that's what seems to be happening in Texas." A Rand study found that the dramatic Texas gains didn't show up in an independent test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Scores for the Scholastic Aptitude Test, a standard college-entrance exam, have remained flat for a decade. Fifty percent of Texas students fail another college preparatory test. Questions have also been raised concerning the state's dropout rate -- officially 9 percent. "I would only say that I and other observers have concluded that the Texas Education Agency's dropout statistics are highly misleading," said Haney, who has studied 20 years worth of Texas enrollment figures. Haney's evaluation revealed that 25 to 30 percent of Texas students fail to graduate from high school. Among minorities, the rate is higher -- 40 percent, he said. Rice University's McNeil also studied enrollment numbers and found that many Houston schools lose half of their students. "Twenty thousand freshmen, 10,000 sophomores, 9,400 juniors and 8,000 seniors," she said. "The dropout problem is not as big as our critics say, but it's big enough," said Nelson. But he defends the tests as especially necessary for them. "If you don't know how the kids are doing, how in the world are you going to know whether they have the chance to be successful or not?" McNeil calls that "a cop-out, a dodge, an attempt to give the appearance of a fix without getting really serious about what the long-term losses are going to be, to produce these short-term numbers." As Congress takes up the President's proposed reforms, legislators must decide whether such accountability testing is a true yardstick for scholastic achievement or another educational gimmick that leaves the deeper problems in schools untouched. RELATED STORIES: Poll: Americans generally favor school vouchers, but unsure of Bush plan RELATED SITES: Texas Education Agency | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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