TYLER, Texas — On Wednesday, Texas Sen. José Menéndez said a two-year hiatus of the STAAR test would allow legislators time to ensure Texas public schools are being fairly assessed.
According to Sen. Menéndez, Texas ranks 40th in education quality and that "students are being set up for failure from the inside out by standardized testing."
Christy Hanson, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the Tyler Independent School District, said the assessment of students is part of holding everyone accountable.
"We're accountable to our students, we're accountable to our parents, we're accountable to our community and assessment is just part of that," Hanson said. "There's a teaching learning assessment you know cycle that's really important to determine where our kids and how are they learning and are they mastering the content so STAAR's just one small piece of that for Tyler ISD."
She explained a halt of the STAAR test would affect how the district conducts its overall assessment plan, but it wouldn't impact how they determine if a student has grasped the content.
"We use teacher made tests, we use district made tests and we use outside assessments as well and in addition to the ones that are that are produced by the state," Hanson said.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) are the state standards for public schools for every grade.
It details the requirements for courses that all teachers must pass on to students.
Hanson said TISD teachers focus on TEKS and not teaching specifically to the STAAR test.
"We know that if we teach the full gamut of the standards that the state provides for us and we teach it at the depth and complexity that it's intended that the test itself will take care of itself," explained Hanson.