2004 Customer Satisfaction Survey (PDF, 566 KB) - TEA - Home ...

nothing to entice new educators in the way of finances or incentives. In fact, the format of TExES
discourages potential educators with ambiguity, not true pedagogical understanding. We DO need
appropriate tests to measure future teachers abilities, but review of these tests most likely would
reveal certain bias of test designers that have nothing to do with logical application of pedagogical
knowledge. Thank you for allowing me to share, although I know this will most likely be discarded.
(Boy, that felt good!)
I am concerned about LEP students being required to take and pass the exit-level TAKS. I have a
student who is a senior and has been in the country for about 5 years. How can she be at the same
level as the students who have English as their native language?
Superintendents:
Special Ed. Needs/Concerns
Special Education.
NCLB
NCLB, the time and cost of complying with the legislation.
No Child Left Behind Legislation.
The lack of definition and agreement with the No Child Left Behind between the DOE and TEA.
Guidance and support for understanding is difficult when the state and federal governments are not in
agreement. We are a Title I District, which creates a significant burden for our staff, children, and
constituents.
Testing (TAAS, TAKS, etc)/ Assessment Requirements
I have serious concerns that the testing related to accountability has gone too far. The testing schedule
for next year that was sent to districts is seven pages long. Much instructional time is missed for
testing purposes, not to mention the resources the district must devote to implementation of the tests
themselves. My concern is not “sour grapes” as most districts would kill to have our test scores. TEA
predicts that 18% of Texas students will not graduate due to the math portion of the TAKS alone. In
my opinion, this is totally unacceptable. Many of my colleagues wonder if there is not a movement
afoot to make school districts look bad so that vouchers will become more politically acceptable to the
public. My state representative is aware of my concerns relative to testing.
State assessments are a very critical concern for our district. Students in Texas are being tested with
too much frequency. Having a system of accountability is one thing, but bombarding students with a
barrage of assessments is another. We need to find a happy medium to ensure that we are
accountable, but with less emphasis on tests.
The amount of testing we are doing and the cost associated with testing.
1% exemption rule is unfair. Work with feds to adjust this rule.
Please continue to assist teachers with the implementation of TEKS and TAKS.
All schools do not have the same block of wood to work with and TEA needs to changes their test
evaluation to reflect that. Scores need to be adjusted according. It is not fair to compare all students
to Highland Park. This is a tough job trying to educate the modern day student and if we continue, we
are just going to scare the good students from becoming teachers. Who will want to teach in the bad
schools if they stand a chance of getting fired because their students did not perform as well as the
Highland Park type students? We just are not comparing apples to apples. Go look at Wal-Mart and
most of us have students just like those people. Come on people we really need to wake up and
realize where this thing is going. Sure, I want our kids to be the best they can be and many of them
Survey Research Center, University Of North Texas
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