Frustration with TX Standards for Education (Austin, Round Rock: appointed, fit in, 2014)

[usernamenottaken]

This is our first year at a TX elementary school. The last 2 years were in NC at a nationally recognized IB Magnet School and it was an amazing experience. My son soared and this year his wings have been clipped.

I am so disappointed, not just with his teacher and the school administration, but also with, as I am learning more, the entire State standards that have been imposed. Not sure if NC has changed this year with the implementation of the Common Core, but TX, who opted out of the National mandate and created their own standards, is awful IMO.

Maybe since this is new, it's something that needs the kinks worked out, but from a parents eyes this year, it seems that they are literally just focusing on math and reading and little else of value. Just trying to get that magic test score so they can get their funding.

What are parents supposed to do? It's come to a point that if you can't afford private school or you don't have the means or ability to home school, your kids are getting a mediocre at best education. It's not right!

Parents need to wake up and speak their mind. Unfortunately we have become a society that doesn't value education and we trudge through life like drones making a buck to buy more things. I am having my second meeting with the Principal this week and will keep going up the ladder. Not sure what little ole' me can accomplish or maybe I'm missing something. But as they say, something stinks...

Does anyone know of a public school tract (Elem/Midd/HS) anywhere in the greater Austin area that offers more than just a basic education? We will move and my husband will drive whatever commute necessary to get our kids in the right school. I looked into Magellan, but darn, we will have to sell our kidneys to go there.

This excerpt below pretty much sums up my frustration with the current educational system and teaching to the test.

FROM THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEM, DIANE RAVITCH, 2010

Our schools will not improve if we continue to focus only on reading and mathematics while ignoring the other studies that are essential elements of a good education. Schools that expect nothing more of their students than mastery of basic skills will not produce graduates who are ready for college or the modern workplace. Nor will they send forth men and women prepared to design new technologies, achieve scientific
breakthroughs, or accomplish feats of engineering skill. Nor will their graduates be prepared to appreciate and add to our society's cultural achievements or to understand and strengthen its democratic heritage.

What is tested may ultimately be less important than what is untested, such as a student's ability to seek alternative explanations, to raise questions, to pursue knowledge on his own, and to think differently. If we do not treasure our individualists, we will lose the spirit of innovation, inquiry, imagination, and dissent that has contributed powerfully to the success of our society in many different fields of endeavor.

[Trainwreck20]

Hah! I have seen the "Common Core" standards, and although I can't say Texas has a better plan, it can't be worse....


We have a child in special education and one that is very precocious. Both are excelling and growing in the public school system, fwiw.

[centralaustinite]

Private school parent here. There are many better options than uber pricey Magellen! I am not a fan of IB at all. You prefer your curriculum and grading (at the HS level) to be done in Geneva?

Education has never been a huge state priority in Texas and we were a leader in high-stakes testing. Nothing prevents you from supplementing the public school curriculum with homeschooling on the side, if you can't do it full time.

good luck

[usernamenottaken]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Private school parent here. There are many better options than uber pricey Magellen! I am not a fan of IB at all. You prefer your curriculum and grading (at the HS level) to be done in Geneva?

Education has never been a huge state priority in Texas and we were a leader in high-stakes testing. Nothing prevents you from supplementing the public school curriculum with homeschooling on the side, if you can't do it full time.

good luck

IB has its merits - if done right - which is the challenge. I'm not necessarily tied to it. I had a great experience with an IB school and my mother is a retired IB foreign language teacher, which is why we went that route. I am open for anything better.

As for supplementing, I do, but after the kid has wasted 7 hours at school, plus homework, it's hard to fit in more study. I do supplement with world experiences, museums, travel, reading, and just in general making them aware that there is a bigger world than just them.

Can you recommend a good Private school that isn't as costly as Magellan? Prefer non-religious.

[JackGriffin]

I know this doesn't really answer the OP's questions, but it seems like it belongs in this discussion. This is from yesterday:

Teachers call it quits after getting fed up with STAAR testing | Austin News & Weather | Austin Texas, Round Rock, TX | kxan.com

Teachers call it quits after getting fed up with STAAR testing
By Dawn DennyUpdated: Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 6:04 amPublished: Monday, March 31, 2014, 6:00 pm

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Teresa Roberson has been teaching for nearly two decades, the last 4 1/2 years at Akins High School in Austin. But on Friday, she called it quits.

She is one of three teachers with Austin Independent School District that told KXAN they quit this school year because they are fed up with standardized testing and the priority it’s become.

When she started at Akins creativity was welcomed, she said. She wrote her own lesson plans and used real-life examples for teaching. With the introduction of STAAR that quickly changed, she added.

Thousands of parents “opt out” of STAAR testing for their kids
“I’m happy that I resigned at the time that I did,” Roberson said. “A lot of my colleagues asked why didn’t you wait and resign at the end of the school year? I didn’t want to wait and go through standardized-testing hell again.”

Roberson believes the pressure of focusing on STAAR and other standardized tests have turned teaching into an assembly line.

“It became a forcing of, ‘Here’s the lesson you’re going to teach,’” Roberson said. “If you don’t do as they tell you to, then nothing you do in your classroom is going to be right. You always get these negative evaluations.”

STAAR results are currently part of teacher evaluations in 85 districts. But the Texas Education Agency says it’s only one part of 51 areas considered in the Personal Development and Appraisal System.

Teresa says AISD also has a merit system in which teachers can earn additional pay based on the improvement in student grades from the beginning to the end of the year. That’s a program designed to help struggling students in certain areas, but some critics of that program say it removes students from daily teaching causing a lag in other areas.

“You don’t get into teaching for the money. You get into it because you’re creative and you care about the kids,” Roberson said. “With the state, the district, and my school…. that’s not the case. When they look at the numbers, when they look at the percentages, they’re not looking at the individual student… as a teacher, I have to look at the individual.”

Roberson says she’s leaving the AISD system but not the teaching profession. She is writing a novel about her experience and says she may consider teaching again where standardized testing is not a priority.

[riaelise]

It's not the school's fault or the teacher's fault. Blame the powers that tie funding to the almighty test scores. They teach to the test because that's what they have to do. My kid is in a charter program, which touches on a variety of subjects as well as reading and math. Reading and math dominate because ultimately, those are the subjects that are the most useful in life for obvious reasons.

Also, there are many graduates of Texas public schools that fill the chairs at UT-Austin, Rice, and other well known schools.

[agthatsagirl]

I understand your frustration. There are many alternative education opportunities around the austin area. This is a pretty good resource: Alt Ed Austin - Home

[usernamenottaken]

Originally Posted by agthatsagirl

I understand your frustration. There are many alternative education opportunities around the austin area. This is a pretty good resource: Alt Ed Austin - Home

This is great! Thank you!!!! And I just discovered, thanks to this site, a school that is exactly what I wanted. Going to meet with them Thursday.

[Idlewile]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Reading and math dominate because ultimately, those are the subjects that are the most useful in life for obvious reasons.

I disagree; anything past long division and fractions is NOT useful in everyday life and when that type of math is needed, a computer does the work for you. Can't say the same about reading and the depth of world understanding it provides, of course.

I say this as a parent of an advanced elementary child attending what is arguably one of the best public school tracks in or around Austin as I'm learning more and more each day about schools around here: The more I hear and read about STAAR testing and how it's changing what and how everything is taught going forward, and how dismayed teachers are by it, coupled with the HUGE priority of math in our RRISD TAG programs while every other subject is an afterthought at best (at least in elementary school), makes me reconsider a Texas public school education for the long haul.

Then you add in a giant dose of competitive, pressure cooker academic setting (like Westwood) where these kids are busting their asses in AP and IB courses getting a 5.6 gpa while in 2 sports and 4 clubs, only to be told by the college they applied to that they can't accept them because they have too many advanced classes that transfer, thus not requiring 4 years of tuition, thus the university would lose out on a lot of dough for that student and I want to bang my head against the wall.

And then I re-watch Sir Ken Robinson's monumental TED talk and feel worse. Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity | Talk Video | TED

[usernamenottaken]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Reading and math dominate because ultimately, those are the subjects that are the most useful in life for obvious reasons. .

It's this reasoning that allowed this Common Core crap to become the standard of education. Reading and Math are the very basics of education. It's the dumbing down of America at it's finest. Maybe the initial theory behind this was valid, that all kids should get the basics. But get bureaucrats and non educators involved and it turns into hundreds of pages of useless crap that teachers are forced to teach to, line by line. It's infuriating! No room for critical thinking, self expression, creative writing, science, technology, social studies, art, music, etc etc. These are all an afterthought now and those schools with the capability or the desire to add to the basics will, the others will just do what it takes to get by. Sad.