However, the test can and should be used to argue for a sound and rigorous mathematics curriculum. Harlandale and Bowie are in their third and fourth years, respectively, of implementation. At Harlandale, TAAS passing rates rose from approximately 45 percent of first-time takers in 1995 to more than 85 percent in 2000. Test preparation has essentially been removed from the classroom. Students engage in a rich mathematics education that makes high test scores a nice by-product, not the focus, of instruction.
Students discover and apply mathematics, thereby engaging in reading and problem solving every day.
Word problems on tests are neither new nor intimidating. And although students use calculators in class, they perform well on the TAAS, which does not allow calculators. Estimation, making predictions, and evaluating answers for reasonableness are daily experiences that improve students' feel for the size and behavior of numbers. These experiences help students succeed even when specific algorithms, say, for dividing fractions, escape them during the test, which is often the case with anxious students. Critics may point out that the TAAS tests too many standards from eighth-grade mathematics and is therefore a poor indicator of the quality of a high school mathematics program.