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TAKS Is No More; STAAR Is The New Measure Of Student Success
The much-maligned TAKS test is no more.
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20 Comments 
AUSTIN (January 26, 2010)--The next generation of standardized student testing in Texas will be called the STAAR, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott announced Tuesday.
Scott said the much-maligned Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills will be replaced with the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, which was mandated by the Legislature.
It will replace the TAKS beginning in the 2011-2012 school year and includes 12 end-of-course exams in the four core subject areas in high school.
This year's seventh graders will be the first class required to meet end-of-course testing requirements to graduate.
New tests will also be developed for students in third through eighth grade.
The new accountability system is still being developed.
State ratings will be suspended in 2012 and the new rating system will debut in 2013, the Texas Education Agency said.
Latest Comments
Six-weeks and semester exams only may have worked in the school where you grew up, but there were many schools graduating illiterate kids, and the taxpayers were paying for it. There needed to be some accountability for the schools. Private schools don't have public accountability, but the parents are paying good money for it; if their students are not learning, they take them out. I hate TAKS, and hope that STARR will be better, but I do believe that we must have some form of accountability so that we aren't wasting taxpayer money on schools who are teaching very little. I agree we shouldn't be teaching to a test, that's a travesty, but at least they're teaching something!
I TOTALLY agree with "parent" !!! WHAT did happen to 6 week test and semester exams. etc.etc. !?!?!? I made it all the way thru K-12, and there certainly wasn't such a thing as TAKS,STARR, or other exams required to graduate. GET BACK TO THE BASICS procedures. It has worked for years.
I was a teacher for many years. I hated having to teach the TAKS test and how to take it. Especially to third graders. It took away from classroom instruction. When the practice test rolled around all of us would have to teach ahead of the curriculum so the kids would know things for the test that the curriculum did not cover for another few months. Just so the test scores would be high. I found that ridiculous.
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