These kinds of high-stakes tests can be unsound academically, unfair, and actually racist. That's not news to some teachers in Texas. Scores are published in the newspapers and then the papers line up the scores, comparing one neighborhood school to the next, she said. That puts a lot of pressure on the teachers and the students. All teachers are required to drill their students for the test, Cootes said.
Teachers complain that they lose teachable moments.
But the TAAS is not the answer. We have felt that for so long because we are shortchanging the kids. They aren't getting a broad education. The Texas Education Commission office has been a fairly unresponsive, lumbering giant for more than 20 years. The teaching and the test are going to match.