Howe superintendent weighs Texas Senate Bill 149

The Texas State Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that will give students that failed the state exam a chance to graduate high school

Bill 149, introduced by Amarillo Republican Senator Kel Seliger, would allow for panels to be set up consisting of educators, counselors and parents to weigh in factors such as grades, attendance and other college entrance exam scores to decide whether the student should graduate despite the poor performance on the state standardized test (STARR) The governor is expected to sign the bill

The STARR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) are a series of statemandated standardized tests used in Texas public primary and secondary schools to assess a student's achievements and knowledge learned in the grade level. It tests curriculum taught from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which in turn is taught by public schools The test is developed by Pearson Education every school year, along with the close supervision of the Texas Education Agency

The test was announced because the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (commonly referred to its acronym TAKS) assessment was repealed by Texas Senate Bill 1031 in spring 2007. The bill called for secondary schools (for grades 9-11) to take end of course assessments every time a student was at the end of taking a course, instead of taking general "core subject" tests STAAR mostly replaced the TAKS in the spring of 2012, although students who entered 10th grade before the 2011-2012 school year continued to take the TAKS

Howe Superintedent Kevin Wilson said that the passing of Senate Bill 149 signifies yet another pendulum swing in the state legislative control of education and brings to light the scrtiny under which the “high-stakes” testing in Texas public schools has fallen

"The current graduation requirements were enacted four years ago, and this year’s senior class is the first to graduate under the new standards " said Wilson "While I have supported state testing requirements for graduation in the past (under the TAKS system), we have seen that the new STAAR End of Course exams have not proven to be reliable or valid measures of a student’s academic achievement. Because they are based on learning objectives that are 'a mile wide and an inch deep', it has proven difficult to refine our curriculum to meet these standards Due to this fact, I support the current legislature’s efforts to amend the education code and modify the EOC graduation requirements If and when the governor signs the bill into law, we will establish a graduation committee that will review each student’s academic record individually to determine whether they are eligible for a high school diploma "