A STAAR is born

  In this my most recent post I am going to attempt to capture a couple of the factual and mildly disturbing truths in my colleagues post about Texas implementing the new STAAR Test to replace the TAKS.  Mr. Bailey brings some interesting fodder to the fight.  His facts seem to be in order and me being the parent of a rather intelligent six year old, I could not agree more with him. 
  Some parents will  be over the moon with the replacement of TAKS, but that is only because they have not spent enough time teaching their kids what they need to know to advance to the next grade.  STAAR is only going to allow kids who are borderline on advancing to the next grade be advanced when they should actually held back or have to attend summer school.  Anytime a student is given a test and told it is pass/fail, if they know the material it will give them a sense of comfort knowing they can get so many answers right or wrong and still be OK. 
  I don't like to brag about my little man being a uber smart fellow but in this case he will not be rewarded in any way by doing better on his STAAR exam than the kids who struggle with it but pass it just the same.  How are we going to keep track of the kids who are excelling if the teacher is lumping their entire class together with a average pass/fail grading criteria? 
  Sebastian was just tested and evaluated for the Gifted and Talented Program and he was placed in the top 3% of all first graders in the nation which means he will be advanced to third grade assignments in certain subjects.  What does that mean?  To me it means he has an aptitude for learning but it also means he will still be a simple statistic on his teachers feedback form when her results come back for her class. 
  I am not one for holding a kid back or punishing a child that is meeting the minimum criteria for passing onto the next grade but where is the incentive for learning if a child knows he/she is just required to pass or fail?  Its kind of like saying whether or not you make $50,000 a year or $100,000 a year you still have to pay the same amount in taxes because you fall in the same tax bracket! Who knew we were increasing the gap with other countries on education of our youngsters? Oh, that's right, Its been like this for a while now!