From TexasISD.com
Joe's Commentaries
Joe Smith: The Waiver is a Good Place to Start - February 20, 2012
By Joe F. Smith - TexasISD.com
Feb 20, 2012, 09:00
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Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott deferred the implementation of the 15 percent grading requirement connected to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness end-of-course examinations. He made the following statement in a press release:
“Based on my conversations with the Governor's Office and clarification of legislative intent from the House and Senate, I am modifying the Texas Education Agency’s House Bill 3 Transition Plan.(Link and emphasis added) The modification gives public school districts and charter schools the ability to defer implementation of the statutory provision that requires performance on an end-of-course assessment to count as 15 percent of a student’s final course grade. The modification applies only to the 15 percent grading requirement in Chapter 39 of the Texas Education Code, and will affect only the 2011-2012 school year. For this school year, the ultimate decision whether to include end-of-course exam scores as part of course grades will be determined locally by school districts and charter schools.
"The law still requires students that are first entering the ninth grade in the 2011-2012 school year to achieve a cumulative score on the end-of-course assessments to complete their graduation requirements. Districts and charters choosing to defer implementation of the 15 percent requirement for the 2011-2012 school year will only need to notify TEA of that decision. Districts and charter schools will receive instructions from the agency regarding this policy change next week.
"I remain committed to rigorous public school accountability, and to implementing the reforms in Senate Bill 1031 from the 80th Legislative Session and House Bill 3 from the 81st Legislative Session. The new assessment system will be better for students and educators, and will better ensure Texas students are ready for postsecondary success.”
The waiving of the 15% requirement for one year does not make right the fact that our system of standardized testing has become a "perversion of its original intent." In a Texas Tribune article, Morgan Smith, speaking of Commissioner Scott, stated “(H)e believed the new system would ultimately be an improvement over the current one, but he expressed concerns about how the transition was playing out in classrooms.”
The Waiver alone does not correct the perversion, but It is a good place to start. The direction of Texas education policy, especially the local control issues, may well be determined at the polls in the coming election. - js - webmaster@texasisd.com.
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