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NMSI Blog

Texas STAAR Tests Flat

Compared to last year, Texas student performance was relatively flat on the state's high school testing. Students do well on Algebra I with 82% passing and biology with 88% passing but are still horrible at writing with only 54% passing the exam which is required for graduation.
 
When students do poorly it seems the automatic response is to lower the standards and Texas is no different - Governor Perry just signed into law House Bill 5 which drops the number of tests required to graduate  from 15 down to 5.  The remaining tests are Algebra I, biology, English I and II and U.S. History - most given in 9th and 10th grade. The more rigorous exams such as Algebra II, 11th grade English and Physics are no longer required.  The sad thing is - you only need 38% of the questions right on the Algebra I exam to pass!
 
When confronted with rigorous assessments our first inclination should not be to make it easier - it should be to provide teachers the training and resources they need to ensure their students succeed. Texas legislators took the first step this year by restoring funding for teacher training and we look forward to providing STAAR training to many more teachers in 2013-2014.
 
If you don't provide some way to improve, is it a surprise that scores don't.