Senate votes to reduce testing for top students
Continuing a move toward reduced testing in Texas schools, the Senate on Tuesday night approved a bill that would exempt high-performing students from reading and math tests in the fourth, sixth and eighth grades. The measure by Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, would affect thousands of students in elementary and middle schools, but the precise number would be left up to the commissioner of education.Seliger said a waiver would have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Education because the federal No Child Left Behind Law requires that all students in grades 3 to 8 be tested annually in reading and math. “This is only for high-performing students, so it shouldn’t be a big number,” the senator said. “For example, if you do very well in third grade math, you won’t take it in the fourth grade. These are kids who don’t have to be tested every year because we know they will perform at a high level.”
The same would be true for fifth graders and seventh graders. If they do well in reading and math, they won’t have to take STAAR exams in those subjects in the sixth and eighth grades. “There is a 97 percent probability that these students will perform at the same level two years in a row,” Seliger said. Students will still be tested in writing, science and social studies in certain grade levels.