HISD to vote on anti-TAKS resolution

The HISD board is expected to consider a resolution this week asking the state Legislature to scrap the TAKS test in favor of year-end exams in core subjects. Legislators have been discussing the testing change for weeks, and we're sure the support of the state's largest school district wouldn't exactly hurt the push for a TAKS-free state.

Teachers and parents have criticized the TAKS for years, saying too much rides on the test and that its grading system is flawed. Some parents have formed OpposeTAKS to challenge the test, and according to The Dallas Morning News, more than 75 percent of Texas teachers don't think the test is a good measure of students' progress. Further, 60 percent of teachers and parents say the test has, in the Morning News's words, "reduced learning to how well a student can take a test." That's why end-of-course exams in core subjects would be a better indicator of whether students are actually learning the material presented, HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said: "End-of-course exams are better able to reaffirm concepts and knowledge learned in the classroom and to focus teacher efforts on subject areas that have the ability to increase student achievement."

The survey cited by the Morning News indicates that parents and teachers don't want to go back to the era of no accountability, but they "suggested the system has swung too far from one extreme [no testing or accountability] to another [too much testing and accountability]." Under the plan being proposed by state Rep. Rob Eissler (R-The Woodlands) and Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano), the series of 12 exams would reduce the importance of a single score in determining whether students will graduate from high school. "This bill holds students to high standards while not putting all the focus on one test," Eissler told the Morning News. "These exams will allow teachers to focus on content and not simply teach to the test."