State Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) is the latest to join the movement toward suspending the high-stakes accountability ratings of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam through May 2021.
"Doing so will allow teachers to focus on interventions necessary to recover instructional gaps resulting from school closures caused by COVID-19," Shaheen told NBC-TV. "Otherwise, STAAR will be an unfair evaluation of our schools, students and teachers as the traditional learning environment was abruptly halted for a significant portion of the school year."
The Wichita Falls Independent School District and State Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van) also announced their support in favor of waiving accountability ratings. Gov. Greg Abbott suspended the controversial testing program in May due to the COVID-19 shutdown.
“It is the utilization of these results for high-stakes decisions such as teacher and principal evaluations, student grade promotion, and high school graduation that is unjust and unfair given the current national crisis,” Flynn told the Lone Star Standard last week.
When the Lone Star Standard asked for comment, Ashley Biard, district director for Shaheen, said that he is unable to accommodate the request at this time.
STAAR results are used to evaluate performance in reading, writing, math, science and social studies for 3rd- through 12th-grade students, but the coronavirus has caused inconsistent student participation and other virtual learning deficiencies. Currently, there are 5.4 million students in Texas, according to the Texas Education Agency.
"Those students lost a vast portion of learning during the final nine weeks of the school year, and it is imperative that our schools be allowed to focus on improving instructional gaps resulting from school closures because of COVID-19," Shaheen said in an interview with NBC-TV.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, STAAR already was under scrutiny, according to media reports.
Tera Collum, executive director of the Travis Institute of Educational Policy, an education advocacy organization in Texas, said implementing a portfolio system or allowing accurate grade reporting by teachers is one way in which schools can be held to reasonable accountability standards while the nation recovers from COVID-19 and its resulting shutdowns.
“Making sure that the student's report card accurately represents the student's achievement and documents any deficiencies,” Collum told the Lone Star Standard.
