Essay TAAS Test and STAAR Educational Test in Texas

Dallas ISD Needs A New System of Governance In the 1990’s, I grew up taking the TAAS test or Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. I did not know why we had to take them but everyone had to and teachers tried to prepare us as much as they can. Then in the 2003, the state decided to change it to TAKS test or Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. I knew that I had passed, but as a student we do not question why we have to take these tests. We are only told that they are important to our education and graduating to the next grade or from high school. A few years afterwards they had switched to a new standardized test form called STAAR which stands for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. It seems that a last few tests were†¦show more content†¦Houston which is ranked number one largest school district has 203,354 students enrolled. (Michels .2013) Statistically, Houston should have a greater propensity percentage for low performing test scores but they are not. Here lies the question why are we out performed by other districts if not by number of students enrolled then what? The main problem exists in the first place because of the standardized tests. Because we are a large district there are problems with the funding and getting good teachers to teach at the schools in Dallas. If we are constantly changing the test format and we keep getting lower scores who would want to work for Dallas ISD. By changing the format of tests students take they have to reassess their objectives in each respective grade level. Teachers are often forced to teach for the tests rather than their subject. It used to be that we were only graded by our teachers and how they taught their classes. We only had to make sure that we knew the subject matter as taught by the teacher. Then standardized testing came into play which made it fair for all the students because teachers had a power over student’s grades. A system of checks and balances came into play and standardized testing became the norm . Then there were more and more changes in testing and still today teachers focus more on what the test will be about rather than subjectShow MoreRelatedChanges In Education1178 Words   |  5 PagesIn Texas, there has many changes with teaching and learning. Over the past years, there has been many laws passed to try and initiate a change within the Texas school system had many laws passed to try and imamate a change in our school systems. In 2002, former President George W. Bush passed a law called No Child Left Behind. This law was similar to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. â€Å"The NCLB law which grew out of concern that the American education system was no longer internationally