Opinion

Editorial

AISD performs well on TAKS,
but testing system still flawed

The first wave of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests has washed through the state's school districts.

The information the Amarillo Independent School District reported to the local media reflected the results of the reading tests for third-, fifth- and eighth-grades. Based on those data, most of the students fared well.

Pass rates for those grades were 89 percent, 88 percent and 91 percent, respectively.

Some of the schools stood out with 100 percent pass rates — Oak Dale, Paramount Terrace, Pleasant Valley, Sleepy Hollow, South Lawn, Western Plateau and Windsor for third grade and Sleepy Hollow and Western Plateau for fifth grade.

No middle school had a perfect pass rate for eighth-graders, according to AISD data.

It will take some analysis and study to understand why the fifth-graders didn't fare as well overall.

But it doesn't take any analysis or study to offer congratulations to those teachers and other staff on the campuses that did so well.

The long hours of after-school tutoring and the repeated simulated TAKS testing have paid off in good scores.

And for school districts across the state, that's important, for it preserves funding, jobs and a continued affirmation that public education can rise to this kind of challenge.

But, one wonders if all that attention and those resources really increase knowledge, make children better equipped to compete in a knowledge economy and prepare them to become better citizens.

Were all those efforts devoted to other intellectual skills such as critical thinking, what would the long-term results be for our society?

These tests are the evil spawn of President George W. Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy's No Child Left Behind legislation.

Some have theorized that the real agenda for NCLB is to gut public education, privatize school systems and break teachers' unions. Others reject those notions and think this kind of assessment is a good thing.

Thank goodness that the Panhandle's Sen. Kel Seliger agrees with those who say the TAKS system is deeply flawed and, as he did in modifying TAKS testing in high schools, he will push for sanity in testing for younger children.

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Posted: April 3, 2008