The Real Concern

            In “NewSTAAR Concerns” fellow classmate Claudio Corona discusses the approval by Texas Legislators to replace TAKS exams with a tougher exam known as the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, also known as STAAR. The base behind the approval of STAAR is based on the idea that this new test will better prepare students for the next grade and eventually college. The STARR exam will be tougher on students because Math and Science questions will no longer be multiple choice rather they will be open-ended, students will be required to write two essays as opposed to one when compared to the TAKS exam, and the exam will have a four hour time limit. The exam’s scores will count for fifteen percent towards the student’s course grade, which is a main concern for parents and teachers. If the students do not average a passing grade with the combination of the exam’s score and course grade they will be allowed to retake the test at an attempt to obtain a passing grade. However, the first scores of the exam will determine the student’s Grade Point Average of the year. Anderson High school’s campus parents and teachers have proposed a letter to the school district to halt the mixing of the course grade and exam to determine the student’s GPA.

Claudio Corona argues against the STARR exam and believes that teachers should be attempting to eliminate the exam completely instead of simply fighting the inclusion of STARR to the student’s course grade. Corona argues that the tests scores should not affect the course grade because exams do not correlate to a student’s intelligence. He believes the exam does not take into consideration students whose primary language is not English which in turn will make the exam even more difficult for them.

I agree that exams do not correlate to a student’s intelligence but at the same time I am in favor of implementing STARR. I see why Legislators would approve of such a measure. According to studentsfirst.org, “15-year-olds in the U.S. placed 25th out of 30 countries in math performance and 21st in science performance.” Furthermore despite previous efforts the average scores for 17-year-olds in the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests have “remained stagnant.” I understand that the implementation of STARR does appear a bit extreme but since previous efforts to improve overall student achievement have failed perhaps the only way to see improvement is to force students to take school seriously by implementing this exam. I believe teachers are not to blame for a student’s lack of improvement because as teachers they possess limited power; teachers cannot force students to pay attention.  I believe the parent’s lack of discipline is to blame. Teachers can punish students to a certain extent but even then there is no guarantee that it will have an effect on their behavior, as educators teachers can only do so much. However, what educators can do is support the implementation of a harder exam, such as STARR, that will hopefully encourage students to improve their achievements….keyword being hopefully.