Texas Keeps Changing STAAR Test Plans, Leaving Teachers and Kids Unprepared

Texans have high expectations for Texas teachers: When I begin a lesson, I have an end-game in mind. We Texans have high expectations for our students: When my students enter my class, their homework should be done. We educators wish the Texas Education Agency would do it's homework on time, too.It seems that TEA has gotten into the unhealthy habit of providing expectations and guidelines, then changing them mid-year seemingly without concern for the consequences.TEA notified districts on January 6 via email that "the short answer reading questions will be removed from the STAAR English I, II, & III and replaced with multiple choice questions." The rest of the test for high school English classes remains the same, and the idea behind this is to better align with the assessments for grades three through eight. (Seems a bit off that high school students are aligning with third graders instead of college preparedness, but that is neither here nor there.)  Continue reading...