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

death. We spend more than 6 weeks of our time testing. After the TAKS is over, everything else is
anti-climactic. You are concerned about school violence, but you restrict the choices children are
allowed to make to the degree that the only choices they can make are withdrawal (dropping out) or
expulsion. TAKS is an expression of the same mentality that produced the ENRON meltdown. Satisfy
certain people at ALL costs, Conformity at all costs. Learning differences and individuality are not
allowed, viewed as failure.
It is great to test skills and students. But to formulate questions so that many will miss it is unfair and
does not prove anything. I feel that often, TEA wants to PROVE how great they are and use
questions or accept questions to ensure that 100% accuracy is very rarely achieved. If skills are
taught and children learn the skills there ought to be many that achieve 100% accuracy. Math tests
should test math skills not reading skills. Reading tests test reading skills. I believe in having high
standards. I usually have 100% passing rates in my classrooms TEKS and TAAS testing, but it is
unfair to continually raise the standard without a stopping point!
The progress of a student from one year to the next should be measured and not grade level
attainment. Achievement beyond that average is excellence.
The calculator requirement for the TAKS is an extreme burden. So much money is spent for use on
those few days each year. The expense is excessive considering the funding issues.
Currently, at the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade levels, students are being tested an inordinately large amount
of times. It would seem that with TAKS, TPRI, Stanford, and OLSAT testing occurring so frequently
we are testing more than teaching the skills that create competent, effective citizens that will lead us
into the next generation of thinkers. With such a strenuous testing calendar students lack the time to
learn through discovery which is the kind of learning that stays with them for a lifetime. I would like
there to be a happy median for testing that would reflect accountability for teachers but allow children
to learn in a non-threatening environment. Testing is about as threatening to students as lay offs are
to working class American. Please do something about testing as a norm vs. learning for a lifetime.
We need to go back to teaching school with the basic subjects. We are now just teaching our students
to be test takers. This takes time away from our regular rounded curriculum.
Too much testing. Do it in the beginning of the year, so we can see what they need that school year.
Not at the end of the year, too late.
TAKS testing.
Authenticity and validity of making a single series of group, administered, paper, and, pencil,
standardized tests the only bottom line for student, teacher and school success.
What exactly does TEA do for the normal classroom teacher who has about 150 students! Can you tell
me how to grade 150 essays and still manage to have time for family, etc? TEA has no impact on me
personally other than the fact that they seem to have some arbitrary policy set forth that means
nothing to someone in the trenches. How about lobbying for another way to fund schools? How
about a higher wage for teachers instead of administrators? Sure, it’s what we hear all the time,
“Let’s pay our teachers more,” but do we do it? The idea of tying it in with performance is ridiculous!
You’re depending on a kid to dictate your pay. Would anyone in their right mind, in the "real world" do
this? I don’t think so. Measuring education is arbitrary at best. Every kid is different and learning is a
life-long process. We all know this to be true, yet we get hung up on TAKS results. The kids freak out
from test anxiety. I have a ten-year-old who has done nothing but worry about the TAKS test. He
makes very good grades and is a conscientious kid. Will this show up on the TAKS test?
The focus on TAKS is too stressful for the students and the teachers.
Bilingual students needing to be tested by the 2nd year here. Even though many say they have
adequate education and consistent education, that is not the case. Many children come significantly
below grade level and we have to work diligently on Spanish skills which limits the amount of time
that can be spent on teaching English. We are not helping those students become successful in
Texas.
We are continually demanding more of our students that they are not mentally mature enough to
handle. I am required to hold my 7th graders accountable for objectives that they are not mentally
mature enough to grasp. In my view, it is like asking a kindergarten child to perform multiplication
problems successfully by memory. They are not at that stage of development. The majority will not be
successful.
I am concerned that our students are not properly being prepared for the TAKS exit test. I am not sure
what should be done, but it seems a bit burdensome to ask students to take several exit tests as well
Survey Research Center, University Of North Texas
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