First the good news. School boards in Texas continue to pass a resolution opposing high-stakes testing. As of this date, 610 school boards representing more than 3.6 million students have passed the Texas resolution. That 59% of all school boards in the state, representing 74% of all students in Texas public schools.
Texas, as we know from its role in originating No Child Left Behind, is a state that is test-obsessed and test-centric. Its leaders assumed that testing would solve all problems, raise everyone’s performance, close the gaps between races and income levels, and maybe do the dishes as well. No one figured out that a standardized test by design is normed, meaning that half are above and half below average; no one realized that standardized tests accurately reflect poverty and affluence. Tests do not teach. Tests instead displace instruction and control and direct instruction into the path ordained by the tests.
Texas, be it noted, is paying $100 million a year to Pearson to design tests. Texas officials should be asking Pearson why New York pays only $32 million annually. Are the Pearson tests for Texas three times as good as Pearson’s tests for New York? Are the Texas officials being treated as dumb rubes who will buy just anything sold by someone with a British accent? As a Texan, I’d like to know why my state got sold something for triple the price of what they were selling to NY.
Now for the bad news.
Disappointed with the results of three decades of testing, disappointed with the poorly prepared students who enter college, Texas officials have just given a contract to the College Board to develop a new test! This would be a placement exam for all students entering any college or university in Texas.
Meanwhile, the cuts to public education are something like $4 billion in the past few years. Teachers, librarians, other have been laid off. Class sizes have gone up.
But there is always enough money for new tests.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And don’t forget they paddle Teachers! http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2012/08/grin-and-bear-it-teachers-paddled-in.html
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Your article is meant to shed light on a problem we classroom educators in Texas have known from the beginning. So, I must disagree with your rhetorical absolutes when you say “no one realized” or “no one figured out.” Texas teachers did. But “no one” listens to us. many of those making decisions have not spent much time if any in an actual classroom. What is frightening is that many of our new teachers are products of the test driven system and the districts are trying to push out veteran teachers who disagree with test driven instruction. We have so many talented kids who are square blocks and we are forcing them to fit in round holes. Test driven instruction does not allow for creativity or innovation for the teacher or the student. Remember the age old question, “Is this going to be on the test?” Well, if it isn’t, forget about it. I hope to see the pendulum swing back to the days of teaching kids to think rather than just pass a test.
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You should get out of the comfort zone of being in the know and get people to VOTE!!!!
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Wow, do I agree with PFranz! After retiring my former school district hired me to tutor for TAKS testing. More money spent to teach to the test. When state standardized testing first came out, we prepared the children about one week ahead of the test, and basically, did test-taking skills, then it grew and grew every year into a “monster,” with a new name every few years. It was renormed periodically, and those children who were low achievers or had language or learning difficulties stayed in the bottom half of the scoring. A generation of these children have been affected, and we will have fewer adults with good thinking or problem-solving skills. I have a granddaughter, in middle school, with recently diagnosed learning difficulties, and she is a basket case when all the test prep and actual testing starts. This can’t be stopped soon enough for me!
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http://www.disdblog.com/2012/07/30/slouching-toward-bethlehem-part-1/
Read the actual background of NCLB from Texas teachers.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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And test we will until every child in this state is left behind and there are no teachers!
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OMG………such truth posted by Sick of Texas………..it is heartbreaking that the childhoods of our children are what’s being left behind……….
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