December 07, 2006
Dewhurst gets on board the "End TAKS" train

In the matter of Sen. Florence Shapiro's stated desire to end TAKS as we know it, she now has an ally in David Dewhurst.


"Our interest is to be able to move away from the test to end-of-course exams and have a standardized test where we could evaluate what the results of our teaching is (compared) to other states," Dewhurst said after speaking to the Statewide Education Legislative Briefing.

High school students would take end-of-course exams, and all seniors would be required to take either the SAT or the ACT.

The state would pay for that test, which would be nearly $50 per student, Dewhurst said.

Senate Education Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, recently proposed scrapping the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test for end-of-course exams in the higher grade levels.

The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, she said.

"I don't know of anybody who thinks it's a bad idea," Shapiro said.


Well, so far at least I haven't seen any quotes from skeptics of this idea, so maybe it is all that. I don't have any philosophical objections offhand, but I also don't know yet what this means in practical terms. What I want, as I said in the comments to the previous post, is for the state to have a clear handle on just what it is it's attempting to measure. That includes a mechanism for assessing the usefulness and accuracy of those measurements, and a means for ensuring that kids are being subjected to an appropriate metric for their level of achievement. (One might reasonably question why kids who are in a vocational school, or kids who intend to go into agriculture, need to take a test geared towards assessing aptitude for college, for example. I'm not saying there isn't a good answer to that question, just that I hope we do have one in mind.) I don't believe TAKS does that as it is now administered, so I definitely support a reform. I just want some assurance that we're genuinely improving things, rather than trading one set of buzzwords and acronyms for another, before I sign on the dotted line.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on December 07, 2006 to That's our Lege | TrackBack
Comments

Looks like we needed something when Dewhurst was in school: "what the results of our teaching is [sic]"?

Can't any of these idiots speak fluently in anything (english, spanish, french, whatever)?

Posted by: david on December 7, 2006 12:12 PM

A lot of people object to end of course exams. It replaces one test with many. So, kids will take more tests. TFT has some good info on this. It feels like the state is willing to throw money at the next solution, that is not proven to increase student achievement. Also, as I keep saying, end of course exams are already on the way for implementation in 2009. This is NOT a new thing. For example, the Biology end of course exam will be field tested next spring.

Posted by: muse on December 7, 2006 11:34 PM