Full-Time Legislature Needed

On May 5, 2016, Veronica Sigler wrote an article discussing the shortcomings of the Texas State Legislature. Her article was straight to the point and I couldn't agree more with every word of it. It is unbelievable that a state with such a population as Texas has only has a part-time legislature. How can 140 days every 2 years be anywhere near sufficient in getting things done in order to improve our state? This policy is setting us up for failure, and I think the results are clear when you see Texas ranked against other states, in areas such as education, for example. Its hard to analyze Sigler's post much more, because she perfectly sums the situation up when she state's "the government is failing us". Such a short session and terrible representation of the state's population within the Legislature  (which I discussed in a previous blog post) leave no room for improvement of this state, which so many hold up in such high esteem. Sigler ends her post perfectly with an urgent request for everyone to get out there and vote. As citizens of Texas, we have so much more power than most realize. We need to take advantage of the voices we have, as we really are lucky to have them. So many places throughout the world don't allow freedom like ours to control the government. But, at the moment, we are living as if we have no say in our government. Nothing will change unless we decide its important to us to get educated and take the reigns out of the hands of the tiny and elite group of wealthy people currently holding all the power. So, I'll end this like Ms. Sigler did: VOTE.

STAAR Testing

Kiah Collier of the Texas Tribune wrote an article on April 29, 2016 discussing the overall stagnant scores of the STAAR test this year, despite the recent higher standards. There are quite a few major issues to deal with within this one topic. First of all, the fact that there was really not much of a change in the scores when comparing this year’s to last year’s is concerning to me. Shouldn’t those in charge of the curriculum and standardized testing be able to look at the results of STAAR tests and see what areas students are lacking in, and then adjust the next year’s curriculum accordingly? These tests aren’t just frivolous matters either, they can determine whether or not a student is able to move on to the next grade, or if they will have to repeat the year. Considering that Texas is one of the worst states when it comes to education, I would think that someone would be actively trying to get our test scores up. But I guess that would just be crazy to use any of the state’s money, time or resources for educating its citizens…

Not only are student’s not being properly educated in the first place, but there are so many technical difficulties and mishaps taking place that they barely have a chance to adequately show what they really know. The article explains that “in March, technical glitches impacted more than 14,000 computerized STAAR exams, causing students to lose answers (some were also given the wrong test)." Some school districts are discovering that certain exams were scored incorrectly or were sent to a church rather than a school for grading. Obviously, the state, and whatever private companies that play a part in this testing, have some work to do. At the moment, they seem unable to guarantee that every student’s test is fairly and accurately graded.

I think that standardized testing should be gotten rid of all together. It doesn’t make any sense to test every single student in the same way over randomly chosen topics that may or may not be relevant. Everyone has their own learning styles and capabilities, with different strengths and weaknesses. Rather than preparing their students all year for one test, teachers should have the freedom to help each of their students learn in a way that will benefit them most and prepare them for the next year.