In a huge victory for students, parents, educators, and local school boards, Governor Rick Perry signed HB5, a bill that reduces the quantity of state-mandated tests. Up until the last minute, activists were fearful he might veto it. But Perry deferred to the huge public outcry against high-stakes testing.
Here is a summary by Texas Association of School Boards.
Here is a statement by TAMSA, known popularly as Moms Against Drunk Testing:
Dear TAMSA members:
Today at 12:30pm, House Bill 5 became law with Governor Perry’s signature. Texas public schools can now begin to implement the positive changes including decreasing the required End-of-Course exams from 15 to 5* and increasing flexibility for high school graduation requirements. This new law also saves Texas taxpayers millions of dollars by limiting state-mandated standardized tests.
Thank YOU for all your time and support of HB 5 over the last few months. All of your calls, emails, testimony, and energy were critical to helping this bill ultimately become law.
We want to also thank the key leadership and staff in Austin for their work on behalf of public education students in Texas: the commitment of Speaker Joe Straus for declaring education a key issue of this legislative session on Day 1; the leadership of Chairman Dan Patrick and Chairman Jimmie Don Aycock for working tirelessly to create and shepherd HB5; to Lt. Governor Dewhurst for supporting HB 5 during this process; to staff members Brandy Marty and Julie Linn for their time fielding our calls and emails on behalf of the Governor, and finally to Governor Perry for listening to his constituents and signing HB 5 into law.
Please take a minute to send an email thanking these people for supporting all of the children in our public schools:
Speaker Joe Straus, Senator Dan Patrick, Representative Jimmie Don Aycock, and staffers Brandy Marty and Julie Linn: [easy cut and paste email list]
district121.straus@house.state.tx.us; Dan.Patrick@senate.state.tx.us; Jimmie.Aycock@house.state.tx.us; brandy.marty@governor.state.tx.us; julie.linn@governor.state.tx.us
Governor Perry: http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/
Lt. Gov. Dewhurst: http://www.ltgov.state.tx.us/contact.php
Again, thank you for all you did. Have a great summer!
TAMSA
* The five EOCs included in HB 5 are: English I & English II, (combined reading and writing) Algebra I, Biology, & U.S. History. Other EOCs (Geometry, Algebra II, World Geography, World History, Chemistry, & Physics) will no longer be required for graduation (including for students that have already taken them).
TAMSA’s mission is to improve public education in Texas through the use of meaningful and effective student assessments that allow for more productive classroom instruction and more efficient use of public funds.
(Forward this email to your family and friends – ask them to join too: http://www.tamsatx.org)
Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment
TAMSA Board of Directors:
Kim Cook Susan Schultz
Susan Kellner Theresa Trevino
Dineen Majcher
Laura Yeager
Joanne Salazar
Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment | 9337B Katy Freeway, #107 | Houston | TX | 77024
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A word about EOC (End of Course) tests: I teach English II, and we have used EOC for several years in Louisiana. The tests come back “scored” in 48 hours. There is no way that the wriritng portions are meaningfully scored.
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Years ago I worked for a small assessment company in Colorado as a grader of student essays for the state’s sophomore English graduation exam. It took weeks to grade the essays; two raters had to come to a consensus; if not, the essay was given to a third rater.
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“God Bless Texas”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Don’t know if I’d go that far!
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Go Texas!
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This effort was a lesson in the numbers it takes to beat a big corporation. Probably 99% of knowledgeable Texans wanted this to happen but there were big obstacles at every point along the way incuding a threat of veto at the end after the bill had passed our House and Senate unanimously. I truly believe that most of the credit for the signing of this bill into law goes to TAMSA for keeping parents engaged and LOUD! We didn’t get everything we wanted but it’s a big step in the right direction in spite of Governor Perry’s desire to cater to big business instead of kids. God bless us everyone.
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You bring up a very good point. Legislators are implementing punitive policy that overrides public opinion. As our public becomes more aware of the punitive consequences theses policies are having on our kids, the outrage will be the motivator to stop HST movement that is being used as a threat and attack. Washington State is ranked #1 in the nation for having the most rigorous graduation requirements. When it was discovered that we had gross inequities across our state, not all students had equal access to all available options to meet math standard, our legislators not only blocked an emergency amendment to address the issue, they turned a blind eye and pushed the ideology forward. Therefore denying HS diplomas to 2,000 students who had met every grad requirement except the math. We know the 2,000 has high percentage of minority and poverty kids represented, they won’t release the numbers. The same legislators that were out early advocating for higher standards and their concern for our minority children. When the inequities was apparent, the same legislators went into hiding and have remained silent. Ideology won over Justice and Fairness. Where’s the learning, they don’t care about these kids, they have no voice and no value in the eyes of those that control educational policy.
Being ranked #1 has it’s cost, no one is willing to take ownership of rejecting and state forced dropouts. I assume we have the #1 ranking for state forced dropouts as well. I don’t understand how Washington state has not been included in the national discussion. We just labelled and abandoned 2,000 and stripped them of any opportunity to move forward in life and seek opportunity with their diploma. The worst part of this tragic policy, not one legislators has had to face our public and justify what they just made happen. Not one! Both political party’s are guilty.
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Teachers can Teach Again!!
Get that creativity Flowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do what you do best–TEACH THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is Great!!
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We are all so grateful to TAMSA….I’m very proud that I got to know and work with the wonderful people in this organization. @SporLin, Texas has been denying diplomas to over 20,000 high school seniors every year despite the fact they had passed all coursework because they failed one or more sections of TAKS (the predecessor to STAAR) and most people don’t even realize it. As grateful as we are for the passage of this bill, we’re not done. Texas still has no appeal process or alternate way to demonstrate mastery, so the only option is to pass these tests or no diploma. And there are many who won’t pass one or more of the remaining 5 tests. Hundreds of thousands are currently off-track to graduate. So much better than 15 tests though, and we are all celebrating tonight!
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This is good news, but it is aspirin to a cancer victim. The basic “accountability” regime remains in place: one set of standards, one (now reduced) set of tests, and a system of evaluating teachers and schools primarily on those outcomes. Tests are really valuable, but this use of them distorts and narrows the curriculum.
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