How it works and why we have it!

"We are not simply testing the skill of students but, more importantly, their ability to think, understand and problem solve."

"If we wanted students simply to be able to solve a math problem in today’s world, we could give them a calculator, but today we realize there is no way to know all the information that is accumulating in our society and for the reason we better have students, who as adults, can take large quantities of information and digest them into reasonable solutions."

Those are the comments of Ann Graves, assistant superintendent for elementary operations, and Wayne Havens, assistant superintendent for secondary operations, when asked to explain why the State of Texas and the Lubbock Independent School District in recent years have placed so much emphasis on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) Test.

The TAAS Test is part of an overall accountability program developed by the Texas Education Agency in cooperation with the public schools of Texas in 1993. It is part of a system which is used to determine how public schools are doing in the job of educating the state’s youth for tomorrow’s challenges.

The state’s accountability system goes even further in that individual schools and districts are held accountable for how students perform in a number of areas. At the elementary level, not only are TAAS Test results of a school’s 3rd through 6th grade students evaluated, but also the attendance of those students. Additionally, the student’s test performance is broken down even further into student groups.

For the coming school year (1995-1996), 30% of all students taking the TAAS Test in a school must pass the reading, writing, and math elements for that school to receive an Acceptable rating. In addition, 30% of each student group (Anglo, Black, Hispanic and other ethnic groups) in that school must pass all elements of TAAS for the school to receive an Acceptable rating. Of course, the higher the overall test scores, the higher the rating the state will give to the school. If 70% of all students being tested and each student group pass the TAAS elements then the school would receive a Recognized rating. If 90% of students and each student group pass, then the school is designated an Exemplary school.

It the students being tested fall below 30% passing on any element of the test or if a student group fails to hit the 30% passing ratio, then the school is determined to be a Low-performing campus.

The accountability system does have some built-in safeguards for school districts regarding individual students. A primary example would be that no school will be held accountable for a student’s performance if that student was not enrolled in the district by October of the school year being evaluated. Additionally, a student group (African American, Hispanic, White, and Economically Disadvantaged) will not impact the school’s test results if less than 10% of that student group compose the school’s population.

Concerning the attendance t\factor in the accountability system, each school must have 94% attendance in all grades for the school year including those grades which are not TAAS tested. As for secondary schools, students are tested in the 7th, 8th and 10th grades. For 10th grade students, this is the test they must pass to be eligible to receive a diploma of graduation. Secondary standards in the state rating system are the same as elementary with a 30% pass ratio for all students taking the test and each student group which comprises at least 10% of the student body of that school.

There is an added stipulation in the rating of secondary campuses, and that is the dropout rate. For a school to receive an Acceptable rating, the drop out rate cannot exceed 6% of the entire student body or any student group. That percentage decreases to 3.5% for a school to receive a Recognized rating and to 1% or less for a school to be designated Exemplary.

While the state’s accountability program is viewed by some as a watchdog effort over the public school system, local administrators say it forces an overall monitoring of student performance and, in reality, it is designed to improve student achievement. Assistant superintendent Graves points out that after the test results are received in June, each campus and student’s performance is evaluated by the administration, the principals of each campus and, ultimately, the student’s teachers. "It’s through this method that we can pinpoint the student’s strengths and areas of need and design programs which will help the individual student to improve those skills." Assistant superintendent for secondary education, Wayne Havens agrees in saying, "If students fail to do well with a portion of TAAS, we now place them in accelerated programs to bring their skills up to the point where they can be successful. We have at times removed students who are far behind in some skills from elective classes and placed them in classes to assist them in upgrading their skills." Havens also states that many elective classes have taken the initiative in support of TAAS skills. "I know one of the high school music departments developed a math curriculum tied to the choir, orchestra and band programs that showed students how mathematics is tied to music. Across the district, LISD has incorporated programs which show students how reading, writing and math have relationships. Havens points out, "We have reading across the curriculum, we have writing across the curriculum and now math-21 which teaches students how math can relate to other areas of study such as music, social studies and a multitude of other courses."

Havens and Graves agree that the concern by some people regarding teaching to the TAAS test is unfounded. They both feel that the students are receiving all the necessary skills training they will need in the future by preparing for TAAS. Both say that by teaching the TAAS objectives, a student learns math, writing and reading skills in addition to gaining the powers of critical thinking and problem solving.

Havens says that LISD still has students who are having a difficult time with the TAAS exit exam, particularly in math, but he believes the district is making great strides in improving math instruction aligned with a strong math curriculum. Havens also stressed that Lubbock students have been very successful in graduating despite the TAAS exit level testing. Havens states, "We do not have many students failing to graduate because of TAAS and that number should drastically reduce after this year."

As for the dropout rate, Havens says LISD overall has a 3% dropout rate which is phenomenally low when compared to the rest of the state. Additionally, LISD’s implementation of the Matthews Community Learning Center, where students who have dropped out or who are on the verge of dropping out because they have a need to work, is helping students to continue their studies at their own pace and time schedule. Eighty-six students received their diplomas this past school year because of the new program.

In looking ahead to the coming school year, Havens says it appears that some LISD High Schools are rated Low-performing because of a student group going over the 6% dropout rate. However, he stresses that the dropout rate affecting those campuses is from the 1993-1994 school year, the first year of the accountability system. According to Havens, the drop out rate will always run a year behind the other factors in rating campuses, and while that may not sound good at the moment, in future years that will allow LISD time to recoup some of those students before the next reporting period. "So being a year behind may not work to our advantage this year; but we should benefit in coming years," Havens added.

The accountability system impacts the entire educational community in LISD. When TAAS scores are received, evaluated and dispersed to the individual campuses, Campus Performance Objective Councils (which includes community representatives), join administrators and teachers on each campus to develop the coming year’s stategy for assisting students are brought into the program by teachers on each campus to develop the coming year’s strategy for assisting students to raise TAAS scores on that campus. Programs are implemented to further assist students whose tests have shown they have problems with various objectives. Additionally, parents are brought into the program by teachers who send home worksheets designed to assist students with specific problems. "We have videos parents can check out that show all elements associated with the math portion of TAAS, and parents are more than welcome to secure one of these videos to assist their students," noted Havens.

Both Havens and Graves agree that TAAS is here to stay! "We as educators are past the denial stage and we find our teachers, students and, in many ways, our community are starting to work together to find better ways to achieve in this new age of accountability. But ultimately it will be the students who will be held accountable for what they know and how they use it," Graves emphasized.

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