Falling STAAR, Failing Kids
Something is not right with the STAAR tests (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness). I’ve been studying the results for 2020-2021 Lockhart High School, for "Masters Grade Level" results. The other two categories of "Approaching Grade Level" or "Meets Grade Level" are irrelevant. Mastery is the only thing that counts. Mastery of social studies (44%) and science (31%) rose to whopping percentages, yet reading (5%) and math (6%) remained behind. Shouldn’t science and math scores be relatively correlated? At least somewhat in the general range? It’s been awhile, but I remember chemistry requiring a lot of math skills. What a difference from 1972 to 2022 -- based on this year's test results, high school science doesn't require even nominal math skills. We know that schools teach to the test. We know that. Our kids know that. The State knows that. Everybody's in on the scam. So why not teach math to the test? Apparently, it's ...