Will the TAKS Test Go the Way of Disco?
March 5, 2009The TAAS test has come and gone, and its successor the TAKS test may be on the chopping block. The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Test, also known as TAKS for brevity’s sake, is the standardized tests that has had Texas schools buzzing for the better part of the last decade.
The TAKS is used as a benchmark to measure students skills and a passing score is required to advance to the next grade. TAKS focuses on testing the knowledge of the individual students based on their skill with the TEKS, or Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.
Following from the TEKS comes the notion of “Teaching to the Test”. Teaching to the test is action of focusing on TEKS at the expense of other areas of instruction in order to increase test scores. This usually means that Social Sciences, Fine Arts and Physical Education will take a hit to compensate for the focus on Reading, Math and Science.
In addition to causing a narrower focus of instruction the TAKS has also been critized for its invalidity as an accurate measure of skill.The reason for this is that the TAKS has a habit of changing every year in order to make test scores seem higher. These changes make it usless as a tool to compare the scored of Texans to any other state.
Furthermore, the stress it puts on Students and Teachers to reach higher test scores prevents preparation for college and or careers.
So if the TAKS gets the axe everything will get better right?
Maybe. Nature abhors a vacuum so something must replace the TAKS. Best case scenario is that a focus on preparation for the SATs and the ACTs will come back to the foreground, but as long as NCLB, No Child Left Behind, is in effect school will be required to prove thier students apptitude with a single test score.
No Child Left Behind + Texas Miracle
