State Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin) is among the latest group of lawmakers 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.
Hinojosa wrote a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath, requesting a reconsideration of the decision to proceed with STAAR testing for students in the 2020-2021 academic year.
“As Texas children are coping with the emotional stressors brought on by the [COVID-19] pandemic, the state should refrain from imposing the additional pressure of a high-stakes, multihour, standardized test on students,” Hinojosa wrote in the July 6 letter. “Texas should join other states in requesting a waiver from requirements for standardized testing for the 2020-2021 school year from the U.S. Department of Education.”
After Abbott suspended the controversial testing program in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 shutdown, the Wichita Falls Independent School District, State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Denton) and State Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van) also announced their support to waive accountability ratings.
“Texas children would be better served by redirecting the tens of millions of dollars spent on the STAAR test to investments in pressing, pandemic-time necessities like the expansion of broadband access to Texas families to facilitate equitable distance learning, and supports for school districts struggling to provide quality education to students receiving special education,” Hinojosa wrote.
As previously reported in the Lone Star Standard, 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 TEA.
“TEA seems to be trying really hard for school to go back like normal without looking at what is going on around the state,” said Tera Collum, executive director of the Travis Institute of Educational Policy, an education advocacy organization in Texas. “I think you will see an increase in students not passing the assessments, increases in student anxiety and teacher anxiety. It’s time for parents to take control of their child's education and opt-out of the STAAR.”
An Opt-Out Texas Facebook group helps parents demand that their children not be subjected to the STAAR requirements, and Teachers for Texas has begun circulating a petition.
“With COVID-19 hospitalizations increasing exponentially, well above what they were when this waiver was approved in the spring, and with a consensus amongst epidemiologists that the virus will disrupt our daily lives for at least another year," Hinojosa wrote, "Texas has a strong case to make for a waiver from standardized testing for the 2020- 2021 school year.”
The Texas Department of Health and Human Services reported 275,058 coronavirus cases and 3,332 fatalities as of July 15.
“Everybody's jumping on the bandwagon, finally,” said Lynn Davenport, a parent advocate and member of Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, a group that actively defends the rights of parents and students to protect their personal data. “Everything Gina is saying I support. If we don't go back to school, we probably won't ever go back to school, and reformers will find a way to just keep kids online and eliminate teachers because they're the most expensive item in the budget.”
