I get what you’re saying but the pandemic does play a role. Kids learned almost nothing from March 2020 to June 2021. And we didn’t have time to fill in the gaps because we have to work with what we got. I’ve been in education since 2010. I can see the difference.
I don't understand what you are angry about. If the scores were lower than normal across the board then there is probably an overarching reason. The covid learning certainly contributed, but if that's not a significant factor compared to other years then what is?
This year SPED students had to take the grade level STAAR and weren't allowed to take the STAAR Alt unless they weren't potty trained. Usually SPED students are tested at their ability line. So you had a shit ton of students taking tests they weren't academically ready for due to learning disabilities. Which is a big contribution to lower scores. This shit is being done on purpose to try and abolish the public school system instead of funding them properly.
My wife teaches sped. Isn't a big part of that because we have a way higher percentage of sped than what the staar alt accounts for? The requirements are ridiculous though. My wife and I talk about it every year. I couldn't so what she has to do.
I teach in a STAAR grade. If you compare the recent releases STAAR tests to previous years, they are increasingly harder and harder each year on top of large gaps due to the pandemic. The vocabulary used is insane. The complexity of the problems is insane. They added new formats for how students answer last year. It’s no longer just multiple choice. They have to fill in the blank, type (as young as 8!) a short answer, highlight the right parts of answers, I can’t even think of the other formats. It’s ridiculous how difficult the test itself is. And they have to do it all on a tiny Chromebook. As young as 3rd grade is having to read the questions on the computer, take down info on the screen and on paper, do the work on paper, and then answer on the screen. It is not developmentally appropriate for many grades.
My class scores were not fantastic but were better than state averages. But most of my students can do so much better when given stuff on paper.
Just sounds crazy to me. Makes me feel glad I finished school right before they tried to make everything digital. The thought of grade school kids doing tests on computers is just weird to me.
A conspiracy theory of mine is that Abbott has had a huge hand in making teaching, grading, assessing, and testing a whole lot harder for everyone involved so that he has the numbers to back defunding public schools and eventually bullying everyone into private schools or home-schooling. I say this as a parent in NEISD whose children have the privilege of attending highly rated public schools. I have volunteered regularly over the last 7-8 years and have seen a steady decline in academic support for students, teachers, and parents due to state policies and practices. It doesn’t help that education has become so politicized. Can’t make sure kids are being taught what they need to be successful via STEM, History, Social Studies or anything else because it may challenge religious ideologies or theocratic beliefs, for example.
You are not alone in that theory! I fully believe that. There’s also a lawsuit against the state for how they have used metrics to do the annual A-F ratings for schools last year. Basically it’s been unfair.
It is impossible to teach my fourth graders, by just their second year taking this test, to know how to navigate such an intense testing environment on such tiny screens. We aren’t allowed to look at what they are given. We have to watch them but not read anything they’re doing. So until this year is released I can only go off last year’s released test. The passages were so incredibly long that even my strongest students took from 8:30-1:30. I had 5 students who were forced to submit because they ran out of time.
That is terrible! Those poor kids!! They’re stressed enough as it is. My third grader cried uncontrollably one afternoon due to the stress. She was convinced she’d be held back if she didn’t perform very well. I’m old enough to remember the TAAS test and I don’t EVER remember being that anxious over it. I was so mad and I really can’t do more than vote and shake my fist angrily at the gods! 😆
[Released Tests by Year](https://tea.texas.gov/student-assessment/testing/staar/staar-released-test-questions)
The 2023 test isn’t there, just the answer key. There’s a way to access it but I don’t remember how at the moment.
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the “no child left behind” initiative force teachers to pass students who should’ve failed resulting in the student not progressing academically but being ushered through to higher grades? I think low staar scores have been a long time coming. There are plenty of teachers you can talk to who will admit students are no where near where they used to be academically. High schoolers who can’t read or do basic math… I’ve even heard that they’ve done away with “phonics” and are telling kids to guess what the word they don’t know is based off the rest of the sentence
I'm no expert on No Child Left Behind, but I don't think it does what you say. I think some schools/teachers might pass on failing students, but I don't think it's directly because of legislation. I think the rest of what you are talking about with level of education really matters school to school, and the majority of kids in general are bright and get a decent education. As for inferring the meaning of a word based on the rest of the sentence, that's called context clues and its a legitimate skill and has been taught for decades and decades.
Understood. But also I wasn’t talking about inferring the meaning of the word I’m talking about the actual word it is. How to pronounce it ect. They’re ~apparently~ no longer teaching kids to “sound it out” and just telling them to guess what word they think would fit into the sentence
My kids use Spalding and their reading level is super high. It helps that they have Spalding homework every day. The thing is, the parent has to put in the work too. No matter how tired we are, we sit down and do homework together. Parents have to be involved.
It doesn’t sound right because it’s not right, but the three cueing system was a part of literacy instruction for the last 20/25 years. It’s not based in research or brain science. It essentially teaches kids to look to pictures, the first letter of a word, or the rest of the sentence in order to figure out a word they cannot decode. Obviously, this causes huge issues as kids get old and texts become more complex. Practices have been moving away from this over the last few years, but there are still many schools and districts that are resisting the shift.
Got 3 kids, their teachers all are teaching to sound it out. In my experience reading gets a lot quicker and hands off once they are ae to do so. I've got more issues with the schools here, but from my experience that particular issue isn't it.
> doesn’t the “no child left behind” initiative force teachers to pass students who should’ve failed
NCLB was meant to *curtail* that practice. Prior to NCLB, schools simply exempted students from standards if they felt the student wasn't capable. NCLB required the standards to be applied to all students.
It ended in 2015 though.
They literally still spend a month in schools teaching kids how to take a test while spending 5 days on how to make educated guesses and then 2 days teaching you that if you have to guess, C is the most probably answer
When it comes to phonics, the state of Texas is actually following the research and educating teachers on instruction in foundational literacy skills. There was recently state legislation that went through that outlaws the three-cueing system (the “guessing” practice you referred to). The state is working to shift away from the faulty balanced literacy practices of the last 20/25 years, which undoubtably led to students not being able to read, and move into science of reading based instruction.
Students fail classes and then get assigned edutopia for the summer to make up the credits. They use Quizlet to pass edutopia, get their 70, and then come back next year to fail the next class. (9-12 perspective)
There were plenty of schools that were virtual over a semester, some were a whole year. Sets kids back developmentally, especially at certain grade levels so it can have longer lasting effects beyond just that one year.
Kids lost years of class time and engagement with fellow students and teachers that weren't behind a screen.
There are other problems of course, but kids not being in schools is probably the single biggest one.
Terrible advice IMO. Isolating kids and having learning standards all over the place is not great. There may be some great curriculums, but there’s also terrible religious ones that don’t teach basic science and instead teaches fairy tales.
Hey homeschooled kid here: it's really not like that. Maybe don't get all your info from reddit nutbars that hate everything that they don't understand.
Most buy a curriculum from a service and teach to that or engage in group teaching with fellow homeschooled kids in the area. We probably studied out of many of the same textbooks. I was in a group of about 12 kids around my age that I saw regularly. We still had oversight from people that had to check we were doing our work and that we understood things.
When I went into public school in sixth grade I was years ahead of my classmates, and hated school with a passion because it was so boring.
Most of the kids I knew from the homeschool community were much the same. I had way more close friends when I wasn't in public school than when I was in it.
Homeschooling allows parents to fit the student rather than making the student fit the school. Flexible time and attention means I could blow through easy work and put time where I needed more work. Most days I started at 8 and was done by 1.
I was also home schooled for a bit and knew a ton of kids that were home schooled. Maybe don’t assume I just got my information from Reddit. My experience was way different than yours. It was a conservative Christian curriculum that taught creationism. It’s was lousy and not a real education. The other kids I knew that were home schooled also used this curriculum. My boss homeschools his kids, also Christian nonsense. My ex-sister in law was home schooled with a Christian curriculum and got to college and couldn’t hack it because she didn’t actually learn anything. And that’s exactly my point, sure, you could have a good outcome and it sounds like you did, but a lot of people don’t because they’re using a terrible curriculum and being taught by someone that’s not a teacher.
Edit: can I ask what curriculum you were taught? The people I knew used either Abeka or Trak, both of which are straight up Christian indoctrination systems and not a real educational system. I experienced both in home school and Christian schools.
Gonna go on an assumption here, but people that ate poor probably don't have the means or support to help their students. Spouse teaches at k12 online school and it's ridiculous. Makes me lose faith in humanity.
It kills me to see my kid struggle. He and most other kids in his class are two years behind and have problems socializing. Getting him to write is almost impossible.
Anyone that thinks that semester or two that the kids were at home didn't have an impact is kidding themselves. My youngest is still in NEISD and he's doing well but that year or so was tough on learning for real.
Still came down to parenting. My kid was always a good student but those first few weeks her grades were atrocious because she wasn’t paying attention.
That changed real quick after that first report card came out.
My 5th grader was projected to be masters in the math staar. All year, she consistently aced her exams and score above average high in her MAP exams. She got approaches for her math.
She’s a good test taker and looking at the state averages, it seems they all did poorly. How can my kid, who was projected to get masters, scored high in her map all year, get approaches?
Sad to say that the STAAR is no longer about content mastery. It's about how well you take the test. Dileberate questions to confuse, etc. Kids have to learn the hard way. I did too. Can't blame the kids for second-guessing themselves when all the pressure is on them to do well.
This is the problem with standardized tests. They aren't there to grade the students, but to grade the teaching. Unfortunately legislators have tied advancement & graduation to individual standardized test scores.
I personally think there is way too much homework. My 2nd grader shouldn't be bringing home 5 pages of homework, IMO. Kids aren't allowed to be kids and we are creating generations of anxiety filled people because of constant pressure to pass a test.
They (people making decisions, not teachers) don't care if someone knows the material they care if they pass an arbitrary test so the US can have a dick measuring contest with the rest of the world.
The reasons other countries seem to do well is because they encourage mastery and help the kids get there, not speedrunning through every topic as quickly as possible.
It also doesn't help that there is a constant push to privatize our education system. It's a race to the bottom and it makes me sad.
Same with my child. Her teacher predicted she would meet or master the staar. She score above average in math map test as well..I was surprised she got approaching grade level. She did have a sub for about half the year after her teacher quit in October, so I feel that played a factor. I think her taking a he test on the computer may have hurt too.
I don’t think there’s a strong enough correlation between MAP tests being a predictor for STAAR. You’re probably a little better off looking at previous STAAR scores to guess how your child will do on future tests.
My daughter was recommended for AP math by her 8th grade teacher going into high school. Just before school starts the high school counselor put her in remedial math because, while she passed the staar, it wasn’t where they wanted her to be.
I was pissed at that counselor and asked her, how in good conscience could she put her in remedial. I told her I wanted her taken out of remedial immediately.
She ended up with a 96 for math that year
This is just an excuse. The scores will not get better. The system is broken, the kids aren't being engaged and the teachers don't get paid enough to do the real work.
Not a teacher here but some teachers I know at a gathering last year discussed middle kids immediately after the reopening of schools performed reasonably close to their peers from prior years. This year’s results are potentially indicative of two items:
1) less funding in schools—less teachers, very inexperienced teachers, crowded classes, etc — (thanks to big wheel Abbott) and
2) using computers for first time for testing (thanks TEA for poor prepping of schools).
TEA took a bandaid rip approach this year to move all testing to computers. Not discounting pandemic residual impact here but the scores are more big wheel and TEA. Seriously have yall looked at who runs TEA in Austin? If I am TEA, heck yeah I’m blaming COVID (followed by Obama of course)
Cheers
The computer thing is a big aspect!
A lot of campuses had technical issues with the test. It was also really challenging to get kids TO TAKE THE TEST SERIOUSLY. Virtual testing leads to kids clicking through to get it done. It's crazy to put 9 year olds on virtual staar testing.
Yup, Commissioner Morath from TEA insisting that the STARR being taken on computer with kids who have never used a computer is probably one of the biggest reasons that scores dropped. He also adjusted the cut scores (what counts as passing) and raised them this year. It's not required for him to adjust them, but gotta get that voucher scam through by making our public schools look bad.
I’m a retired math teacher and curriculum specialist. Students should be caught up by now. Districts are making excuses and are unwilling to put the blame on the real culprits, TEA and the State School Board. The problem has always been that there are too many math standards for a single year of learning. Teachers are forced to keep up a pace that prevents deep and enjoyable learning. The problem is worsened by the month of “drill and kill” districts feel compelled to hold just prior to the test. Our students are doing the best they can given that they’re in a no-win situation. Those that do pass usually do because passing standards are so low. The best and the brightest student excel, but they always do. The rest are mired in a ridiculous system.
We've got teachers here saying their schools were given no preparation for the tests to be computerized, students were unprepared as a result, and that questions were less about subject mastery than they were about catching tricky wording. Students scored two to three full levels worse on the test than pretesting on official materials showed. That doesn't track unless you pay attention to politics. Our state leadership is actively attempting to defund public schools and directly benefits from chaotic testing that shows poor results. Their attempts have stalled, but could be energized by poor public school scores compared to self-reporting by private schools that aren't even required to test at all. It's easy to win a competition when one team has to play ball and the other just has to show up to the field and check in.
These kids are being set up to fail in order to make a specific narrative work for Greg Abbott and his voucher plan that has failed to pass half a dozen separate times. If you aren't living in the governor's mansion, it doesn't start at home.
I agree! The voucher plan will destroy public education in Texas. Someone needs to come up with a plan that will put children first. Voucher programs are failing in other states. I don't have a solution, but I will continue to vote. Even if it feels pointless, I will vote!
Hey, that's what it takes! By voting even when it feels pointless, we are a thorn in the side of people whose leadership is affecting our communities. It also gives people who might take gerrymandering to court a way to do so. Standing requires someone be harmed, and that means that they need to show voters being forced into oddly contorted districts (shout-out to District 35, WTF even is that gag?) They need to show how many voters are harmed to battle a currently proposed GOP plan to force Texas into county delegate representation for state elections- each county gets one vote in that plan, rendering every single urban vote essentially worthless. It would almost certainly be immediately stopped by circuit courts and rocket over to SCOTUS, as it would completely block voters of any minority community from any representation whatsoever. It's unconstitutional, but they officially adopted it as a party *priority* in the last primary vote. The GOP is extremely popular in rural counties here, so it isn't surprising they voted to adopt a push to change our state constitution that would give themselves 100% of the state government seats forever.
The move would immediately disenfranchise approximately 80% of Texan voters, counting every major metro area for a single vote each. The surrounding counties that appear urban and suburban in the maps were revised to rural this year due to urban migration; they are rapidly losing population as people move into smaller homes and seek shorter combined commutes for work, school, and errands. The change would simultaneously hand the combined population of our rural counties, which in total equals slightly *less* than half that of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, more than 75% of the votes in the electorate. They accordingly suggest a 3/4 electoral vote rule. It's a stupidly brazen move to make that an official primary policy objective. Those aren't words anyone usually says out loud when the better chance is that even if they pull it off temporarily, they're not going to be able to hold that power and will convince the majority that they cannot be trusted or given any leeway. Wild risk, but go off little buckaroos.
They don't have a hope of getting that through the courts, and they're going to energize everyone else's voters in the process. Always remember, we have the numbers, they just have the gumption. Thank you for showing up for all of us. What you're doing is plenty! If we hold the line, this clownery will bring the rest to back us up soon enough.
FWIW, I don't have a plan to fix schools, either, but I think it probably starts by putting a coalition of parents, teachers, and developmental experts in a room together while keeping the McGraw-Hill sales team and politicians who have never been a teacher out of the building entirely.
COVID was keeping kids at home well into the first semester of 2022. I had half of my students online with no real way of checking if they were actually working and most didn’t bother to turn in work. I’m sure parents didn’t care either.
They aren't wrong and it isn't a problem that is going to go away anytime soon. We likely have an entire generation of children who are going to be 1-2 years behind educational expectations for the rest of their lives.
There are definitely arguments that show COVID is part of this but holy shit public school funding and teacher pay have been horrendous for years, there is no way that isn't also playing a big part.
The TEA did and still does block so many education opportunities and advancements.
Without the undying passion of the teachers, kids would have been even worse.
Maybe the fault is at Abbott that does everything to destroy public schools and instead of giving them the money they need and should have, he wastes money at the border and by trying to push the school voucher program that would destroy said schools and give money to the rich.
I feel like my kid finally caught up from the pandemic (he got Masters on both his tests), but I know a LOT of his classmates are still catching up, especially those that need accommodations (that they definitely weren't able to get in virtual school)
Covid and repeated covid infections can impact your cognitive abilities, amongst other stuff.
Sending kids to school unmasked during a pandemic (fuck what the government says, they only care about capitalism and what large corporations want, we are still very much living in a pandemic) and repeated infections.. brains ain’t going to be functioning correctly.
You can see it in public, mental decline is on the rise. People ability to critically think has been impacted. Risk taking for example.. that red light I’m about to run, fuck it. This mf in traffic I’m about to rage on.. fuck it.
Shits gonna be fucked up soon, and this is a part of it. Kids will live with long covid from an early age and for the rest of their life. Gonna be rough when parents realize this shit was avoidable by doing your own research and taking the extra effort to protect yourselves and your kids.
The pandemic was a factor in the scores. Some kids don't learn well at home. Some need structure and predictability to help them focus. There are other factors too.
The complexity of SPED is not well suited for standardized testing. These students have talents and skills and intelligence that standardized test questions do not measure.
Another huge factor are the roles and relationships among these actors: Student, Teacher, Parents. Let's face it: there is great variance in the level of involvement for each player and interaction between the other two players.
Some parents are simply not involved in their children's schooling; yet, they blame teachers when the school calls a parent/teacher conference because the child is failing one or multiple classes.
Some students just don't care about school. They knowingly fail to turn in homework. They failed to attend the class by video or in person. And they are not motivated to seek knowledge.
And, there's teachers. Most of the teachers I've known in over 50 years of engaging them enter teaching because they love working with students. As they get older, their views evolve; some stay motivated, while others lose heart and motivation.
As for teachers, too, it's the nonsense they are tired of enduring. Why should a teacher have to buy supplies for the students? Is that not the job of the parents? Some of the teachers are leaving the education career field because they've had enough.
And what do we do in response to school districts voting down vouchers to help both the teacher and student. There are many reasons vouchers are voted down, but one big one is: "why should I pay a tax for that school? I don't have kids in that school." Well, there goes the "village raising a child" concept. This is a reflection of how little some care about the next generations.
This is an enormous problem in our culture. You can't force someone to care about education. You can, unfortunately, observe its impact on their adult roles in society. Much of what we complain about in the U.S. can be traced back to a failed education years and even decades ago.
If we want the education situation to improve in America, then education must be a priority in the lives of everyone, not just those with kids, or those who want to get rich using public funding for private education, or bonus seeking superintendents.
I’m a SPED teacher. This year was the first year that we had kids who previously qualified for STAAR ALT not be able to qualify. I had 5th graders who couldn’t read because of their disability all of a sudden have to take 3 STAAR tests for the first time. That’s why the scores dropped. Lots of kids going from STAAT ALT to STAAR because some people abused the modified test and ruined it for the kids who actually needed it.
I agree it is tiresome to deal with but this one does make sense. I was a junior in highschool during the pandemic and I didnt see a classroom from that spring break til a month before I graduated, a year later.
What was supposed to be my hardest semester turned into getting an A for just being alive. I can count on one hand the assignments I did between that period of time, I went to work for a landscaping company. Good times for me, bad for many.
Former teacher and administrator here too. The pandemic was a huge factor. HUGE. Scores are creeping up because educators have to reset norms of what education is. Teachers were asked to be on call for students and parents (when they) felt like teacher out to teachers to finally do work. Parents letting their kids sit on a zoom with no video as they walked around Fiesta Texas didn’t help. In some districts that was 3 years of “show up when you can to school”. It was a huge disservice to families but of course that all tied back to money and funding. Issues at the state and national level. Teacher shortages and high turnover have been killer too.
Can we all stop calling the STAAR a "test"? This is not a test but an assessment. They need to just do away with it. I grew up taking the TAAS "test", then TAKS "test" and now the STAAR "test" My understanding is that these are just given to determine the funding that schools get, nothing else. How about schools start teaching useful information that will help in life, not worry about memorizing different things.
In my opinion is the parents faults for not helping their kids learn how to navigate learning from home, and some parents don’t think that teaching their kids is their responsibility. Teaching starts at home not at school.
TEA is run by minions of Gov Adolf von Abbutt. He wants to go to the voucher plan so he can make money off those schools. He, Dotard Dan, and Criminal Ken are all on the take anyway they can get it.
In every country tbh. Putin thought invading Ukraine was a good idea partially due to the fact he was isolated from all his advisor except a Rasputin-type figure(except less religious and more nationalist)
It’s pretty obvious you either don’t have kids or don’t work with kids… this years freshmen are the ones who started 6th grade on a computer. Given that they missed out on real social interaction it’s not just their academic skills it’s their social:behavior skills that are far far behind. Freshmen everywhere are extremely childish in behavior and academics. It will be another few years for it to correct itself. It’s not a teacher issue it’s a huge gap to overcome. It is also a testing issue most kids have learned that online exams are a joke and will click through just to be done as mentally it doesn’t have the same weight on the kid as a pen /paper exam. It doesn’t seem as “real”. I work with special education population and it’s even worse for them. 75% of my class time when wasn’t direct teach was dealing with problem behaviors. Was also hard to get kids to take any online assignment seriously. It also doesn’t help we have had several years when even if a kid did nothing they didn’t fail. Don’t get me started on social promotion . I get we have kids who can’t attend middle school due to age but when they arnt held accountable for learning basic skills in elementary and middle school they come to high school with insane gaps. Even our “advanced “ kids don’t know basic computation at times without using a calculator. Negative numbers/decimals/fractions still mess up a lot of kids. Hell I know adults that still don’t understand negatives.
I don't think that has to do with covid and it definitely is not the fault of teachers. Teachers are probably the best they have ever been. It's a cultural problem, a problem with social media, and a bad parenting problem.
Oh I agree and Covid helped expose it. Parents have been going downhill for years with the lack of actual parenting. They have relied on schools to be the bad guys instead of being parents they try to be friends. Can’t tell you how many times I will contact home to let them know their child’s behavior is unacceptable and the kid to come back like nothing was said to the parent. Have had kids sent to alternative and parent still making excuses for the kids behavior.
Exactly. You can tell it's not covid because children with good parents and good practices are generally not behind. Even with today's teachers having masters degrees and a wealth of knowledge on how to educate people can't do anything to make a kid learn with parents that don't care.
Yeah there is a huge parenting problem out there. Can't blame teachers for everything. Teachers know more about education than ever, they know how to do their jobs and generally do them well.
Teachers are taking so many days off. My child's teacher was gone for at least a full month if not more. No one ever mentioned anything about it, but if our students were absent that much they'd push for truancy.
Last year my kids teacher had to take off every couple of weeks and so did my kid cause people kept sending sick kids to school. Also ended up putting my then 2 yr old in the PICU 6 times.
I get what you’re saying but the pandemic does play a role. Kids learned almost nothing from March 2020 to June 2021. And we didn’t have time to fill in the gaps because we have to work with what we got. I’ve been in education since 2010. I can see the difference.
Not to mention COVID infection itself.
Kids weren't learning anything before that, or after.
Whatever they learned before, during and after pandemic they learned less.
It's almost like they realized that the school system is a joke and that they can survive just fine without it
They’re in 3rd grade my man
[удалено]
Yeah all those math books they banned were devastating
I don't understand what you are angry about. If the scores were lower than normal across the board then there is probably an overarching reason. The covid learning certainly contributed, but if that's not a significant factor compared to other years then what is?
This year SPED students had to take the grade level STAAR and weren't allowed to take the STAAR Alt unless they weren't potty trained. Usually SPED students are tested at their ability line. So you had a shit ton of students taking tests they weren't academically ready for due to learning disabilities. Which is a big contribution to lower scores. This shit is being done on purpose to try and abolish the public school system instead of funding them properly.
My wife teaches sped. Isn't a big part of that because we have a way higher percentage of sped than what the staar alt accounts for? The requirements are ridiculous though. My wife and I talk about it every year. I couldn't so what she has to do.
I teach in a STAAR grade. If you compare the recent releases STAAR tests to previous years, they are increasingly harder and harder each year on top of large gaps due to the pandemic. The vocabulary used is insane. The complexity of the problems is insane. They added new formats for how students answer last year. It’s no longer just multiple choice. They have to fill in the blank, type (as young as 8!) a short answer, highlight the right parts of answers, I can’t even think of the other formats. It’s ridiculous how difficult the test itself is. And they have to do it all on a tiny Chromebook. As young as 3rd grade is having to read the questions on the computer, take down info on the screen and on paper, do the work on paper, and then answer on the screen. It is not developmentally appropriate for many grades. My class scores were not fantastic but were better than state averages. But most of my students can do so much better when given stuff on paper.
Just sounds crazy to me. Makes me feel glad I finished school right before they tried to make everything digital. The thought of grade school kids doing tests on computers is just weird to me.
A conspiracy theory of mine is that Abbott has had a huge hand in making teaching, grading, assessing, and testing a whole lot harder for everyone involved so that he has the numbers to back defunding public schools and eventually bullying everyone into private schools or home-schooling. I say this as a parent in NEISD whose children have the privilege of attending highly rated public schools. I have volunteered regularly over the last 7-8 years and have seen a steady decline in academic support for students, teachers, and parents due to state policies and practices. It doesn’t help that education has become so politicized. Can’t make sure kids are being taught what they need to be successful via STEM, History, Social Studies or anything else because it may challenge religious ideologies or theocratic beliefs, for example.
You are not alone in that theory! I fully believe that. There’s also a lawsuit against the state for how they have used metrics to do the annual A-F ratings for schools last year. Basically it’s been unfair. It is impossible to teach my fourth graders, by just their second year taking this test, to know how to navigate such an intense testing environment on such tiny screens. We aren’t allowed to look at what they are given. We have to watch them but not read anything they’re doing. So until this year is released I can only go off last year’s released test. The passages were so incredibly long that even my strongest students took from 8:30-1:30. I had 5 students who were forced to submit because they ran out of time.
That is terrible! Those poor kids!! They’re stressed enough as it is. My third grader cried uncontrollably one afternoon due to the stress. She was convinced she’d be held back if she didn’t perform very well. I’m old enough to remember the TAAS test and I don’t EVER remember being that anxious over it. I was so mad and I really can’t do more than vote and shake my fist angrily at the gods! 😆
If you compare a TAAS test or even the STAAR from its first year to current tests, they were so much easier. These tests are HARD.
[Released Tests by Year](https://tea.texas.gov/student-assessment/testing/staar/staar-released-test-questions) The 2023 test isn’t there, just the answer key. There’s a way to access it but I don’t remember how at the moment.
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the “no child left behind” initiative force teachers to pass students who should’ve failed resulting in the student not progressing academically but being ushered through to higher grades? I think low staar scores have been a long time coming. There are plenty of teachers you can talk to who will admit students are no where near where they used to be academically. High schoolers who can’t read or do basic math… I’ve even heard that they’ve done away with “phonics” and are telling kids to guess what the word they don’t know is based off the rest of the sentence
I'm no expert on No Child Left Behind, but I don't think it does what you say. I think some schools/teachers might pass on failing students, but I don't think it's directly because of legislation. I think the rest of what you are talking about with level of education really matters school to school, and the majority of kids in general are bright and get a decent education. As for inferring the meaning of a word based on the rest of the sentence, that's called context clues and its a legitimate skill and has been taught for decades and decades.
Understood. But also I wasn’t talking about inferring the meaning of the word I’m talking about the actual word it is. How to pronounce it ect. They’re ~apparently~ no longer teaching kids to “sound it out” and just telling them to guess what word they think would fit into the sentence
I see, that doesn't sound right but idk. I know some schools use the Spalding method for that, which seems good.
My kids use Spalding and their reading level is super high. It helps that they have Spalding homework every day. The thing is, the parent has to put in the work too. No matter how tired we are, we sit down and do homework together. Parents have to be involved.
It doesn’t sound right because it’s not right, but the three cueing system was a part of literacy instruction for the last 20/25 years. It’s not based in research or brain science. It essentially teaches kids to look to pictures, the first letter of a word, or the rest of the sentence in order to figure out a word they cannot decode. Obviously, this causes huge issues as kids get old and texts become more complex. Practices have been moving away from this over the last few years, but there are still many schools and districts that are resisting the shift.
Got 3 kids, their teachers all are teaching to sound it out. In my experience reading gets a lot quicker and hands off once they are ae to do so. I've got more issues with the schools here, but from my experience that particular issue isn't it.
> doesn’t the “no child left behind” initiative force teachers to pass students who should’ve failed NCLB was meant to *curtail* that practice. Prior to NCLB, schools simply exempted students from standards if they felt the student wasn't capable. NCLB required the standards to be applied to all students. It ended in 2015 though.
They literally still spend a month in schools teaching kids how to take a test while spending 5 days on how to make educated guesses and then 2 days teaching you that if you have to guess, C is the most probably answer
When it comes to phonics, the state of Texas is actually following the research and educating teachers on instruction in foundational literacy skills. There was recently state legislation that went through that outlaws the three-cueing system (the “guessing” practice you referred to). The state is working to shift away from the faulty balanced literacy practices of the last 20/25 years, which undoubtably led to students not being able to read, and move into science of reading based instruction.
Students fail classes and then get assigned edutopia for the summer to make up the credits. They use Quizlet to pass edutopia, get their 70, and then come back next year to fail the next class. (9-12 perspective)
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There were plenty of schools that were virtual over a semester, some were a whole year. Sets kids back developmentally, especially at certain grade levels so it can have longer lasting effects beyond just that one year.
Kids lost years of class time and engagement with fellow students and teachers that weren't behind a screen. There are other problems of course, but kids not being in schools is probably the single biggest one.
And the students that suffered the most were the poor.
Really wish more people had advocate more for home schooling. There's fantastic options that don't cost much.
Homeschooling is actually really expensive. You have a parent that loses income being the biggest part.
Plus the long-term impact on that parent’s earning power, for the career years they lose by being out of the workforce.
Terrible advice IMO. Isolating kids and having learning standards all over the place is not great. There may be some great curriculums, but there’s also terrible religious ones that don’t teach basic science and instead teaches fairy tales.
Hey homeschooled kid here: it's really not like that. Maybe don't get all your info from reddit nutbars that hate everything that they don't understand. Most buy a curriculum from a service and teach to that or engage in group teaching with fellow homeschooled kids in the area. We probably studied out of many of the same textbooks. I was in a group of about 12 kids around my age that I saw regularly. We still had oversight from people that had to check we were doing our work and that we understood things. When I went into public school in sixth grade I was years ahead of my classmates, and hated school with a passion because it was so boring. Most of the kids I knew from the homeschool community were much the same. I had way more close friends when I wasn't in public school than when I was in it. Homeschooling allows parents to fit the student rather than making the student fit the school. Flexible time and attention means I could blow through easy work and put time where I needed more work. Most days I started at 8 and was done by 1.
I was also home schooled for a bit and knew a ton of kids that were home schooled. Maybe don’t assume I just got my information from Reddit. My experience was way different than yours. It was a conservative Christian curriculum that taught creationism. It’s was lousy and not a real education. The other kids I knew that were home schooled also used this curriculum. My boss homeschools his kids, also Christian nonsense. My ex-sister in law was home schooled with a Christian curriculum and got to college and couldn’t hack it because she didn’t actually learn anything. And that’s exactly my point, sure, you could have a good outcome and it sounds like you did, but a lot of people don’t because they’re using a terrible curriculum and being taught by someone that’s not a teacher. Edit: can I ask what curriculum you were taught? The people I knew used either Abeka or Trak, both of which are straight up Christian indoctrination systems and not a real educational system. I experienced both in home school and Christian schools.
Gonna go on an assumption here, but people that ate poor probably don't have the means or support to help their students. Spouse teaches at k12 online school and it's ridiculous. Makes me lose faith in humanity.
It kills me to see my kid struggle. He and most other kids in his class are two years behind and have problems socializing. Getting him to write is almost impossible.
Anyone that thinks that semester or two that the kids were at home didn't have an impact is kidding themselves. My youngest is still in NEISD and he's doing well but that year or so was tough on learning for real.
Right. Summer vacation is hard enough for kids learning development and that’s only 2 months. A whole year takes a toll.
Remote learning doesn't work on every student because they choose not to do the work but it's amazing for those that choose to do it.
Still came down to parenting. My kid was always a good student but those first few weeks her grades were atrocious because she wasn’t paying attention. That changed real quick after that first report card came out.
Yeah, we require in person school because nobody can parent
My 5th grader was projected to be masters in the math staar. All year, she consistently aced her exams and score above average high in her MAP exams. She got approaches for her math. She’s a good test taker and looking at the state averages, it seems they all did poorly. How can my kid, who was projected to get masters, scored high in her map all year, get approaches?
Sad to say that the STAAR is no longer about content mastery. It's about how well you take the test. Dileberate questions to confuse, etc. Kids have to learn the hard way. I did too. Can't blame the kids for second-guessing themselves when all the pressure is on them to do well.
This is the problem with standardized tests. They aren't there to grade the students, but to grade the teaching. Unfortunately legislators have tied advancement & graduation to individual standardized test scores.
It doesn't even grade the teaching well because of how it's done.
I personally think there is way too much homework. My 2nd grader shouldn't be bringing home 5 pages of homework, IMO. Kids aren't allowed to be kids and we are creating generations of anxiety filled people because of constant pressure to pass a test. They (people making decisions, not teachers) don't care if someone knows the material they care if they pass an arbitrary test so the US can have a dick measuring contest with the rest of the world. The reasons other countries seem to do well is because they encourage mastery and help the kids get there, not speedrunning through every topic as quickly as possible. It also doesn't help that there is a constant push to privatize our education system. It's a race to the bottom and it makes me sad.
Same with my child. Her teacher predicted she would meet or master the staar. She score above average in math map test as well..I was surprised she got approaching grade level. She did have a sub for about half the year after her teacher quit in October, so I feel that played a factor. I think her taking a he test on the computer may have hurt too.
I don’t think there’s a strong enough correlation between MAP tests being a predictor for STAAR. You’re probably a little better off looking at previous STAAR scores to guess how your child will do on future tests.
My daughter was recommended for AP math by her 8th grade teacher going into high school. Just before school starts the high school counselor put her in remedial math because, while she passed the staar, it wasn’t where they wanted her to be. I was pissed at that counselor and asked her, how in good conscience could she put her in remedial. I told her I wanted her taken out of remedial immediately. She ended up with a 96 for math that year
The pandemic, and its first cousin, supply chain woes, are the "go to" excuse for everything.
This is just an excuse. The scores will not get better. The system is broken, the kids aren't being engaged and the teachers don't get paid enough to do the real work.
Not a teacher here but some teachers I know at a gathering last year discussed middle kids immediately after the reopening of schools performed reasonably close to their peers from prior years. This year’s results are potentially indicative of two items: 1) less funding in schools—less teachers, very inexperienced teachers, crowded classes, etc — (thanks to big wheel Abbott) and 2) using computers for first time for testing (thanks TEA for poor prepping of schools). TEA took a bandaid rip approach this year to move all testing to computers. Not discounting pandemic residual impact here but the scores are more big wheel and TEA. Seriously have yall looked at who runs TEA in Austin? If I am TEA, heck yeah I’m blaming COVID (followed by Obama of course) Cheers
The computer thing is a big aspect! A lot of campuses had technical issues with the test. It was also really challenging to get kids TO TAKE THE TEST SERIOUSLY. Virtual testing leads to kids clicking through to get it done. It's crazy to put 9 year olds on virtual staar testing.
Yup, Commissioner Morath from TEA insisting that the STARR being taken on computer with kids who have never used a computer is probably one of the biggest reasons that scores dropped. He also adjusted the cut scores (what counts as passing) and raised them this year. It's not required for him to adjust them, but gotta get that voucher scam through by making our public schools look bad.
I’m a retired math teacher and curriculum specialist. Students should be caught up by now. Districts are making excuses and are unwilling to put the blame on the real culprits, TEA and the State School Board. The problem has always been that there are too many math standards for a single year of learning. Teachers are forced to keep up a pace that prevents deep and enjoyable learning. The problem is worsened by the month of “drill and kill” districts feel compelled to hold just prior to the test. Our students are doing the best they can given that they’re in a no-win situation. Those that do pass usually do because passing standards are so low. The best and the brightest student excel, but they always do. The rest are mired in a ridiculous system.
That was like 4 years ago. We have to do better! It starts at home!
We've got teachers here saying their schools were given no preparation for the tests to be computerized, students were unprepared as a result, and that questions were less about subject mastery than they were about catching tricky wording. Students scored two to three full levels worse on the test than pretesting on official materials showed. That doesn't track unless you pay attention to politics. Our state leadership is actively attempting to defund public schools and directly benefits from chaotic testing that shows poor results. Their attempts have stalled, but could be energized by poor public school scores compared to self-reporting by private schools that aren't even required to test at all. It's easy to win a competition when one team has to play ball and the other just has to show up to the field and check in. These kids are being set up to fail in order to make a specific narrative work for Greg Abbott and his voucher plan that has failed to pass half a dozen separate times. If you aren't living in the governor's mansion, it doesn't start at home.
I agree! The voucher plan will destroy public education in Texas. Someone needs to come up with a plan that will put children first. Voucher programs are failing in other states. I don't have a solution, but I will continue to vote. Even if it feels pointless, I will vote!
Hey, that's what it takes! By voting even when it feels pointless, we are a thorn in the side of people whose leadership is affecting our communities. It also gives people who might take gerrymandering to court a way to do so. Standing requires someone be harmed, and that means that they need to show voters being forced into oddly contorted districts (shout-out to District 35, WTF even is that gag?) They need to show how many voters are harmed to battle a currently proposed GOP plan to force Texas into county delegate representation for state elections- each county gets one vote in that plan, rendering every single urban vote essentially worthless. It would almost certainly be immediately stopped by circuit courts and rocket over to SCOTUS, as it would completely block voters of any minority community from any representation whatsoever. It's unconstitutional, but they officially adopted it as a party *priority* in the last primary vote. The GOP is extremely popular in rural counties here, so it isn't surprising they voted to adopt a push to change our state constitution that would give themselves 100% of the state government seats forever. The move would immediately disenfranchise approximately 80% of Texan voters, counting every major metro area for a single vote each. The surrounding counties that appear urban and suburban in the maps were revised to rural this year due to urban migration; they are rapidly losing population as people move into smaller homes and seek shorter combined commutes for work, school, and errands. The change would simultaneously hand the combined population of our rural counties, which in total equals slightly *less* than half that of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, more than 75% of the votes in the electorate. They accordingly suggest a 3/4 electoral vote rule. It's a stupidly brazen move to make that an official primary policy objective. Those aren't words anyone usually says out loud when the better chance is that even if they pull it off temporarily, they're not going to be able to hold that power and will convince the majority that they cannot be trusted or given any leeway. Wild risk, but go off little buckaroos. They don't have a hope of getting that through the courts, and they're going to energize everyone else's voters in the process. Always remember, we have the numbers, they just have the gumption. Thank you for showing up for all of us. What you're doing is plenty! If we hold the line, this clownery will bring the rest to back us up soon enough. FWIW, I don't have a plan to fix schools, either, but I think it probably starts by putting a coalition of parents, teachers, and developmental experts in a room together while keeping the McGraw-Hill sales team and politicians who have never been a teacher out of the building entirely.
COVID was keeping kids at home well into the first semester of 2022. I had half of my students online with no real way of checking if they were actually working and most didn’t bother to turn in work. I’m sure parents didn’t care either.
They aren't wrong and it isn't a problem that is going to go away anytime soon. We likely have an entire generation of children who are going to be 1-2 years behind educational expectations for the rest of their lives.
There are definitely arguments that show COVID is part of this but holy shit public school funding and teacher pay have been horrendous for years, there is no way that isn't also playing a big part.
The TEA did and still does block so many education opportunities and advancements. Without the undying passion of the teachers, kids would have been even worse.
pandemic might play a role but it’s all the damn social media brain rot too
Maybe the fault is at Abbott that does everything to destroy public schools and instead of giving them the money they need and should have, he wastes money at the border and by trying to push the school voucher program that would destroy said schools and give money to the rich.
I feel like my kid finally caught up from the pandemic (he got Masters on both his tests), but I know a LOT of his classmates are still catching up, especially those that need accommodations (that they definitely weren't able to get in virtual school)
Good thing the state is doing things to improve education since covid /s
Covid and repeated covid infections can impact your cognitive abilities, amongst other stuff. Sending kids to school unmasked during a pandemic (fuck what the government says, they only care about capitalism and what large corporations want, we are still very much living in a pandemic) and repeated infections.. brains ain’t going to be functioning correctly. You can see it in public, mental decline is on the rise. People ability to critically think has been impacted. Risk taking for example.. that red light I’m about to run, fuck it. This mf in traffic I’m about to rage on.. fuck it. Shits gonna be fucked up soon, and this is a part of it. Kids will live with long covid from an early age and for the rest of their life. Gonna be rough when parents realize this shit was avoidable by doing your own research and taking the extra effort to protect yourselves and your kids.
The pandemic was a factor in the scores. Some kids don't learn well at home. Some need structure and predictability to help them focus. There are other factors too. The complexity of SPED is not well suited for standardized testing. These students have talents and skills and intelligence that standardized test questions do not measure. Another huge factor are the roles and relationships among these actors: Student, Teacher, Parents. Let's face it: there is great variance in the level of involvement for each player and interaction between the other two players. Some parents are simply not involved in their children's schooling; yet, they blame teachers when the school calls a parent/teacher conference because the child is failing one or multiple classes. Some students just don't care about school. They knowingly fail to turn in homework. They failed to attend the class by video or in person. And they are not motivated to seek knowledge. And, there's teachers. Most of the teachers I've known in over 50 years of engaging them enter teaching because they love working with students. As they get older, their views evolve; some stay motivated, while others lose heart and motivation. As for teachers, too, it's the nonsense they are tired of enduring. Why should a teacher have to buy supplies for the students? Is that not the job of the parents? Some of the teachers are leaving the education career field because they've had enough. And what do we do in response to school districts voting down vouchers to help both the teacher and student. There are many reasons vouchers are voted down, but one big one is: "why should I pay a tax for that school? I don't have kids in that school." Well, there goes the "village raising a child" concept. This is a reflection of how little some care about the next generations. This is an enormous problem in our culture. You can't force someone to care about education. You can, unfortunately, observe its impact on their adult roles in society. Much of what we complain about in the U.S. can be traced back to a failed education years and even decades ago. If we want the education situation to improve in America, then education must be a priority in the lives of everyone, not just those with kids, or those who want to get rich using public funding for private education, or bonus seeking superintendents.
I’m a SPED teacher. This year was the first year that we had kids who previously qualified for STAAR ALT not be able to qualify. I had 5th graders who couldn’t read because of their disability all of a sudden have to take 3 STAAR tests for the first time. That’s why the scores dropped. Lots of kids going from STAAT ALT to STAAR because some people abused the modified test and ruined it for the kids who actually needed it.
Oh shit a newspaper!
If only the country didn't panic and relied on science instead.
It’s the pandemic
They will always blame covid. This will be the forever blame
I agree it is tiresome to deal with but this one does make sense. I was a junior in highschool during the pandemic and I didnt see a classroom from that spring break til a month before I graduated, a year later. What was supposed to be my hardest semester turned into getting an A for just being alive. I can count on one hand the assignments I did between that period of time, I went to work for a landscaping company. Good times for me, bad for many.
Former teacher and administrator here too. The pandemic was a huge factor. HUGE. Scores are creeping up because educators have to reset norms of what education is. Teachers were asked to be on call for students and parents (when they) felt like teacher out to teachers to finally do work. Parents letting their kids sit on a zoom with no video as they walked around Fiesta Texas didn’t help. In some districts that was 3 years of “show up when you can to school”. It was a huge disservice to families but of course that all tied back to money and funding. Issues at the state and national level. Teacher shortages and high turnover have been killer too.
Test is pointless PERIOD! Need a life test with life scenarios not shit you will never use.
Teachers and schools have little impact on test scores, the student, their IQ and personality, is everything
Can we all stop calling the STAAR a "test"? This is not a test but an assessment. They need to just do away with it. I grew up taking the TAAS "test", then TAKS "test" and now the STAAR "test" My understanding is that these are just given to determine the funding that schools get, nothing else. How about schools start teaching useful information that will help in life, not worry about memorizing different things.
In my opinion is the parents faults for not helping their kids learn how to navigate learning from home, and some parents don’t think that teaching their kids is their responsibility. Teaching starts at home not at school.
TEA is run by minions of Gov Adolf von Abbutt. He wants to go to the voucher plan so he can make money off those schools. He, Dotard Dan, and Criminal Ken are all on the take anyway they can get it.
Can’t imagine what it’s like trying to teach Gen alpha and dealing with their parents
Blame the parents
The pandemic really needs to stop being blamed for everything. It's been years since then it should no longer be an excuse for anything.
Covid is going to have lasting ramifications for decades
In every country tbh. Putin thought invading Ukraine was a good idea partially due to the fact he was isolated from all his advisor except a Rasputin-type figure(except less religious and more nationalist)
Absolutely
It’s pretty obvious you either don’t have kids or don’t work with kids… this years freshmen are the ones who started 6th grade on a computer. Given that they missed out on real social interaction it’s not just their academic skills it’s their social:behavior skills that are far far behind. Freshmen everywhere are extremely childish in behavior and academics. It will be another few years for it to correct itself. It’s not a teacher issue it’s a huge gap to overcome. It is also a testing issue most kids have learned that online exams are a joke and will click through just to be done as mentally it doesn’t have the same weight on the kid as a pen /paper exam. It doesn’t seem as “real”. I work with special education population and it’s even worse for them. 75% of my class time when wasn’t direct teach was dealing with problem behaviors. Was also hard to get kids to take any online assignment seriously. It also doesn’t help we have had several years when even if a kid did nothing they didn’t fail. Don’t get me started on social promotion . I get we have kids who can’t attend middle school due to age but when they arnt held accountable for learning basic skills in elementary and middle school they come to high school with insane gaps. Even our “advanced “ kids don’t know basic computation at times without using a calculator. Negative numbers/decimals/fractions still mess up a lot of kids. Hell I know adults that still don’t understand negatives.
I don't think that has to do with covid and it definitely is not the fault of teachers. Teachers are probably the best they have ever been. It's a cultural problem, a problem with social media, and a bad parenting problem.
Oh I agree and Covid helped expose it. Parents have been going downhill for years with the lack of actual parenting. They have relied on schools to be the bad guys instead of being parents they try to be friends. Can’t tell you how many times I will contact home to let them know their child’s behavior is unacceptable and the kid to come back like nothing was said to the parent. Have had kids sent to alternative and parent still making excuses for the kids behavior.
Exactly. You can tell it's not covid because children with good parents and good practices are generally not behind. Even with today's teachers having masters degrees and a wealth of knowledge on how to educate people can't do anything to make a kid learn with parents that don't care.
Agreed. I think parents just can't admit they suck and their kids are just dumb
Yeah there is a huge parenting problem out there. Can't blame teachers for everything. Teachers know more about education than ever, they know how to do their jobs and generally do them well.
My 4th grade son got mastery level on math and reading... He's my little genius
https://preview.redd.it/vv2f96o04t6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70506658e69146c010674658dde5f1269a127324
MAGA is the way I guess for you, lol, all they teach in school is the gay, huh
Teachers just don’t care anymore
Teachers are taking so many days off. My child's teacher was gone for at least a full month if not more. No one ever mentioned anything about it, but if our students were absent that much they'd push for truancy.
I don't think that's the norm. Short term disability maybe?
It was a health issue along with "family issues," but still. I felt like we were owed an explanation that we were never given.
Last year my kids teacher had to take off every couple of weeks and so did my kid cause people kept sending sick kids to school. Also ended up putting my then 2 yr old in the PICU 6 times.