Texas Parents Against High-Stakes Standardized Tests
- by: Jannine Neely
- recipient: Texas State Legislators:Rick Perry, John Cornyn, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, and Sam JohnsonÂ
We, the taxpayers, strongly believe Texas High-Stakes Standardized tests have compromised academic success for our children, because the tests;
-create gaps in learning.
-put unnecesary pressure on students and give them a tainted view of their actual academic abilities.
-waste critical learning/teaching time on test preparations and training.
-take billions of dollars away from state education funding in order to pay publishing companies to create them, instead of allowing educators to help create tests.
-unfairly penalize both poor test takers and students who are non-traditional thinkers.
-limit creativity in the classroom.
-limit a teacher's ability to adapt to learner differences.
-create the illusion that all students who perform well on high-stakes standardized tests are well-prepared for secondary education and/or competitive in the real world.
- force schools to "teach to the test" in order to be recognized as a credible institution.
-create the illusion that a rating of "exemplary" in regards to a school involves many factors, when the reality is that schools are given a rating purely on the student bodies overall state standardized test results.
-have not been proven to better prepare or educate students for a future in high-tech world.
Dear Texas Legislators,
We, the undersigned, believe the enormous amount of emphasis placed on high-stakes standardized tests in Texas has grossly deteriorated the public education system and the quality of education recieved by the majority of Texas publicly-schooled students. As taxpayers and voters, we believe the Texas state government has taken an inappropriate role in the education system we are paying for, and our public schools must adhere to. Our educators have spoken out against these tests and you have ignored them. They have told you they are not afraid of accountability, and would like to participate in the creation of a more reliable and accurrate method than the once-a-year high stakes test. But instead of listening to them or acknowledging the fact that Texas students are not prepared for college due to school systems that are forced to teach to a Texas test, you have simply created another test to resolve the problem.
We expect our government to allow our educators to have the primary role of creating curriculums and tests, with government input regarding expectations and accountability. We believe there are more accurate and beneficial tools that can be used to measure results and accountability, rather than our governments idea that the results of one test is a reliable indicator of student, teacher, and school achievement. Furthermore, we believe the inevitable negative effects of these tests not only lead to the deterioration of a genuine and whole education, they are also inhibit the potential of the individual student, teacher, and school. We strongly urge you to listen to the educators and taxpayers in our state, and the voters who elect our government leaders. Politicians may benefit from 4 years of successful results, but our students need 13 years of an education that revolves around learning, not test numbers. Thank you for taking the time to listen to our plea.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
By signing, you accept Care2's Terms of Service.
You can unsub at any time here.
Having problems signing this? Let us know.