The STAAR testing... yup... instead of taking basic exit level TAKS... I did, you prolly did... so on...
Instead kids will have to take THREE exams in EACH of the following: Eng I, Eng II, Eng III, Eng IV, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II (and any higher level ones too), Geography, World History, US History, Government Economics... okay well basically you will be given a TAKS test for EVERY SINGLE CLASS you take... rather than a single Reading TAKS for all the English classes you take... electives and P.E. don't have one that I've heard of but ANY required course for graduation will be state tested now.
And the STAAR tests for 3-8 are all geared to built up to the exit levels... think that could be problematic since those kids have been trained for years to do TAKS and now they've got to learn a new system Or Else.
Tried asking our VP what those 3-8 tests will be like (my kids are 2&7th next year) and she just regurgetated the blurb I read on Wikipedia... that's all they knew... and they're supposed to start teaching this new system come August... kind of scary that they've got less than six months prep on this... and it's the kids that will suffer for it.
Like I said, it's a sore spot... and one more reason we're trying HS... they literally took a full six weeks off teaching actual curriculum to teach bubble filling for pete's sake... I thought you learned to color in the lines in kinder... but that's on top of every 'chapter' throughout the year being given in TAKS kind of format. ALL they do all year long is worksheets... and this is at a "good school"... one of the ones I consider 'bad' refuses to teach cursive writing... a 3rd grade teacher I talked to elsewhere said that is SO not allowed... the whole district has to teach the same stuff... but not this school... cousin went off to junior high and couldn't sign his own name! How's THAT going to look on college and job apps?!?! But, TAKS tests your handwriting doesn't matter, even on the writing TAKS, so there's just no motive for them to waste valuable test cramming time teaching it.
I remember, barely... mostly because my results are in my scrapbook, the Iowa Skills Test that I took in 3&4th grades.... all the exact same subjects were tested two years in a row... NO STRESS... just do the best you can.... then the staff sees your weak areas and tries to boost them... low in reading? Do some extra SRAs... low in math... here's some practice... then the second year you can see if the help worked (mind very much did) and reassess to see what's up for next year. THAT IS AN EXCELLENT USE FOR THOSE TESTS... it really did help kids!!
This crap they're doing now though... whoever makes the tests completely controls the curriculum for the state. You might have noticed the 'textbook war' that was raging? What goes in the Texas History books (among others) and what doesn't? But, fact is that if it's not on the test they don't teach it... and the School Board has no control over what's in the test... No One is allowed to see the test... why hasn't anyone noticed that before?? Very odd IMHO.