Freshmen, sophomores and juniors all had to take the STAAR test this year for various subjects. The STAAR tests are administered by the state in order to evaluate the students’ mastery over subjects such as English language arts, history and math. Schools take several days to administer each of these tests to their students, and teachers are put in charge of overseeing the testing process.

State administered tests such as the STAAR test are redundant and should be eliminated.

The STAAR tests suck up a lot of time and resources for teachers and students. A single STAAR test takes up the majority of the day and students and teachers must sit in the same classroom for hours on end. There is no opportunity to do homework or for the teacher to work on a lesson plan. The majority of students finish early and are unable to do anything productive with their time while waiting for the last handful of students to finish up. The way this testing setup is organized is inefficient, since it is forcing a large majority of students to accommodate a small minority.

STAAR tests don’t just interfere with the grade level that’s being tested – administering the test messes up the whole school’s agenda. Classrooms must be set aside for students to take the test and teachers are needed to administer the test, leaving students in other grade levels without a teacher and forced to relocate to a different classroom or the library. Students and teachers are set back by the hiatus from all day testing and teachers have to spend time that they don’t have trying to catch up with material that was missed for other grades.

STAAR tests may not even be necessary. The state administers the STAAR test in order to gauge each student’s mastery of basic skills in certain subjects and scores can determine the flow of money to different school districts. But this test is exactly the same for each school district, without accounting for individual teaching styles and educational regimens that may account for a discrepancy in scores. Each teacher teaches and explains concepts differently, and having students try to conform what they’ve learned to a standardized test may result in them performing in a way that does not reflect their knowledge of the subject. By having each student take the same test, the state isn’t able to recognize the true intelligence of a district’s students and effectiveness of its teachers.

It is true that the state needs an indicator that schools are doing their job and teaching students necessary basics in core subjects, but there are more effective ways for this process to happen. In order to make the test more tailored to teaching styles, there could be district approved tests or even tests made by each school itself (all approved by the state of course). This would give a more accurate score of what students know about the subjects. Also, to save time and resources, the state could have the STAAR test act as a final for the class. This way, everyone could take the STAAR test whenever they have their class final, allowing various grade levels to all be taking the test and minimizing interference with other grade level’s schedules.