After day after day watching her fourth grade daughter cry, Tereza and her husband finally got to the bottom of it. Daniela was afraid of taking the STAAR test this year. The prospect had become overwhelming to her.
As described by her mother, Daniela is an outgoing girl who loves art, Girl Scouts, being outdoors and singing in church choir. But somehow STAAR had morphed into something that terrified her.
Tereza jumped through an untold number of hoops (more on that later) and was told — incorrectly — that her daughter couldn't opt out of taking the STAAR test. She sent in a request to the principal of her Houston ISD school and it was denied. Several more appeals followed until the school finally acknowledged: Daniela would not be taking the STAAR this year.
Whereupon teachers told Daniela, "Don't worry. You're so smart, you got this. You can take it later."
Do they teach the concept of tone deafness in New Education System schools these days?
Tereza (who did not want her real name or her daughter's used for this article) decided that was best for Daniela was to opt out. A number of parents are doing that this year. Still easier said than done in HISD or, in fact, most public school districts in Texas. Because the Texas Education Agency and public school districts want these kids to take the tests administered over a three-week period in the spring.
And will do almost anything including — as some parents tell us — lie.
Most of us know why and it's not all due to a selfless concern for children. Whether teachers and principals support STAAR or not, they know the statewide standardized test whose results play a significant role in determining their pay, assignments or being handed a we're-not-renewing-your-contract notification.
And although it is fairly common to hear people nostalgically describe the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness as something that started out just as a diagnostic tool to help teachers find out exactly where students' learning gaps were, that's just so much blather. An urban myth if you will.
Right from the start in Spring 2012, STAAR was as much an evaluation of teachers and principals as it was a way to test kids, according to Ruth Kravetz, an education activist and co-founder of the Community Voices For Public Education website.
In 2015, HISD had to embarrassingly walk back a coercive directive that went out to all parents from the then-special assistant for academics Daniel Gohl who threatened in boldface and underlined: negative consequences to any students that did not take the STAAR . They would have to go to summer school if they wanted to be promoted to the next grade, he promised.
Kravetz wrote a challenge to this saying Gohl's conclusions contained several factual errors. Within a few days HISD had Gohl write another letter to parents saying his first was never meant to be heavy handed. He proceeded to backtrack, saying summer school was not required in all cases.
Giving it all the the benefit of the doubt we can muster, we can call STAAR's implementation a well-meaning attempt to improve academics across the board for American children. Everyone would be held accountable and if students from more limited socioeconomic levels weren't learning as well as their more affluent classmates then the blame would be laid at the feet of the schools, their teachers and principals.
Naturally enough with pressure to do well applied at the top, two things happened. In districts throughout Texas, some teachers and principals were caught cheating and increasing pressure was applied down the line to children. Test prep went on for days, weeks in districts everywhere. Tutors were brought in to prop up students with failing STAAR practice test scores and dismissed when the tests were over (I know; I was one of them.)
And although Superintendent Mike Miles has said there's no need for STAAR test prep especially in his NES schools, teachers are ignoring that, sending STAAR test practice tests home with their students. Tereza knows this for a fact; her daughter came home with two such packets.
Karina Quesada is the mother of three children in the 5th, 7th and 11th grades, who are opting out of the STAAR this year.
"This action isn't to avoid a test but to assert my opposition to a system of academic assessment created by the TEA. The STAAR instruments are not referred to in the Education Code as tests. They're consistently referred to as assessment instruments.
"My issue with these assessments is it's used to punish students, teachers schools, whole communities suffer these consequences. Here in Houston we've lost our ability to have an elected board who represent and are accountable to us and it's based on how our children did on our assessment. "That's a whole lot of power, pressure and responsibility to place on our children. Where else does this happen?"
"While I know that me, personally, my kids opting out isn't going to change the curriculum or the situation without a massive amount of others joining in, I morally can't send in my 'good test takers' because I know there's a forced 5 percent failure. So my kids taking it can contribute to another child's school closing or another district losing their elected board. so morally we can't participate in that. I do what helps me sleep at night. "
If you type "opt out of STAAR" into Google you'll find any number of school districts and education organizations saying you cannot do that. Teachers and principals say you can't as does the Texas Education Agency.. The "Non-Participation" assessment form from your school says you can't opt out. But that's not true. Yes you can. But it won't be easy.
The process is this: First you tell your teacher that your child will be opting out. Then you either have to send a letter of intent to the principal or fill out an "Assessment of 'Non-Participation' form."
On that form and other written policy areas, HISD is a district in contradiction with itself. Under the heading "Exemption from instruction" HISD writes that "A parent is allowed to remove the parent's child temporarily from a class or other school activity that conflicts with the parent's religious or moral beliefs." In that same subsection, however, it says in both boldface and underlined fashion: "A parent is not entitled to remove the parent's child from a class or other school activity to avoid a test."
Opponents of STAAR testing embrace the first statement and choose to ignore the second.
And as CVPE has written with help from Scott Placek an attorney who hates high stakes standardized tests, "“ While parents are not allowed to exempt their child from a test, they can opt out of an assessment. The legislature created specific but different, provisions relating to the rights of parental access to tests and assessment instruments.
"The STAAR instruments are not referred to in the Education Code as tests. Rather, they are consistently referred to as “assessment instruments, CVPE states. "In layman's terms, the reason STAAR is not a test is because the legislature says it is not."
The one bit of good news from this HISD policy statement is where it says "Any student who does not participate in state-mandated assessments at the request of his or her parent/guardian will not be subject to negative consequences or disciplinary action." So at least we're not returning to the threats of 2015.
But misinformation still is churned out, parents say. Another mother told us that after doublechecking with the Texas Education Agency she was able to confirm that HISD's instructions are inaccurate when they say "if a student is present on the day of the STAAR test, even if they are opting out, they must be sent to the test room, read the test directions and given the opportunity to test."
But in response to a query, Julie Cole, a TEA director, wrote in an emailed response "The district is not required to put the student in front of the test or makeup test. The local documentation of the test refusal should be sufficient."
What happens if the don't take the STAAR? It is scored as a zero. The consequences? HB 1416 allows these children to decline summer school. This will not keep your child from promotion to the next grade.
High school is a little trickier, but not insurmountable. Substitute assessments can be put in place. It all depends on how much extra trouble parents are willing to go through to prove a point, to save their kids from what they see as a bad experience.
Veteran teacher Anita Wadhwa teaches 11th grade English in a nearby district. She switched to this grade level from English I. "I'm teaching juniors this year. I purposely avoided teaching a STAAR-tested subject because I didn't want that kind of pressure.
"I just didn't want to have to succumb to all the test prep that you naturally have to do to get students familiarized with the test. I think it's really disheartening as an English teacher who's passionate about reading and writing to know that AI could be grading the open ended answers on the STAAR test."
Use of the STAAR test is of dubious benefit, she said. "The test is not reassuring at all. The test hasn't closed the [achievement] gaps. When has the test ever closed the gaps?"
Wadhwa who used to teach in HISD is a frequent attendant and speaker at HISD board meetings and the parent of two young daughters."The test is not reassuring at all. The test hasn't closed the [achievement] gaps. When has the test ever closed the gaps?"
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One of her daughters started opting out two years ago as a third grader.. The test was no challenge to her and she was prepared to take it, Wadhwa says. "Then a week later she came to me and said 'I saw a girl who started crying because she didn't do good on the practice test and that made me feel really bad and that makes me not want to take the test."
Her other daughter who is in third grade now is also opting out. At the same time, however, her daughters know their absence from the test is counted against a principal if a number of students don't take the STAAR, Wadhwa says. "Now you're pitting these students against their principals."
Kravetz echoes that. "Students are being brainwashed into believing if they don't take it, they are letting their teacher down. Which is why people aren't opting out. "
Wadhwa believes that assessment testing is worthwhile if it's used as a tool to learn what a student hasn't grasped with the idea that the teacher can review that part. But she doesn't believe it should be used if it results in people being fired.
She says most kids get stressed about the STAAR. Added to that, are the kids in AP classes which come right after the STAAR for high school kids, she says. "Part of the stress manifests as they just completely check out. They just kind of quickly do it and submit it and go to sleep."
During COVID, Kravetz says thousands and thousands of kids across the state did first grade at home. "The STAAR this year in Fourth Grade is a measure of how many resources their parents had at home in 2021."
Last year, Tereza's daughter took the STAAR as a third-grader. "She did fine on it," Tereza says. This year it caused nothing but tears for both daughter and mother. Tereza sent emails and texts to teachers saying her daughter's mental health was being affected.
She investigated whether this would harm her child academically if her daughter didn't take the STAAR. As she found out, it is not part of their test grades and students can be promoted without it. "All our lives we've just been hearing that test is such a big deal to pass. The fact that we're not informed of our rights made me feel 'All right, I'm up for this decision.'"
She describes one meeting she had at the school: "I'm crying my eyes out and I'm thinking you guys are not listening."
Tereza isn't opposed to standardized testing, she says. She acknowledges that many kids don't have a problem with it. Her daughter didn't last year, now she does. Tereza feels strongly that the school didn't support her daughter in this, particularly when teachers kept urging Daniela to take the STAAR even after the opt-out.
"It bothered me so much . I don’t want to get anybody in trouble but please stop talking to my kids like they don’t have a voice."
In any event, Tereza says, This year isn't forever. By next year, Daniela may want to tackle STAAR again.
"She can always take it," Tereza says. "Whenever she's ready. Whenever she's ready."
Because unless something changes in Texas, unless legislators start listening to parents of public school children, STAAR will be there waiting. Now and later. And later and later and later.
