(Assignment #3) The STAAR Test is Put on Hold

In the Austin American Statesman there is a great article about how Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott has pushed back against the lobbyist group Texas Association of Business and others about the STAAR test. He strongly feels that testing schools to see how well they are performing has gone far off course from what it was intended to accomplish and now teachers are having to teach students to take the tests instead of teaching students to educate them for life. He feels the testing has gone from a means to evaluate to becoming the main focus in schools. The Editorial Board feels that Robert Scott pushing back and postponing the effects of the STAAR test on students grades until next year was an absolute win, and I have to say I agree. The move to push it back a year is absolutely strategic as it coincides with the Legislature convening in 2013 when they can re-evaluate how effective accountability legislation actually is.

I agree on all accounts with this article. I feel teaching kids to do well on a test instead of focusing on teaching them material so they can advance farther is a huge loss. In other countries they expect their youth to speak two or three languages. I feel we expect much too little from our students and I feel taking out a fourth of a year to teach the test just teaches our kids the wrong lessons about life and takes away from other things our teachers could be educating them about. I am excited that they are pushing it back a year so the Legislature can take appropriate measures to see if accountability legislation is helping or hurting as we try desperately just to keep our schools above board.

(Assignment #2) Texas and the Death Penalty

In The Texas Tribune they have a fantastic article discussing the death penalty. I found it very interesting that in America we did not have the death penalty in use for many years and what started us using it again was an execution in Utah thirty years ago by firing squad. I would have thought that type of execution would not have occurred as recently as thirty years ago.I am also astonished that the current use of the death penalty has only been around since I was born.

In Texas, the death penalty is a hot item of conversation. I would love to see if use of the death penalty is decreasing due to the death penalty "doing it's job" and persuading people not to commit crimes or is it due to the fact that, as a culture, we are less likely to hand out that punishment. If I were pressed to choose which is the reason, I would certainly lean more towards our culture being less likely to use the death penalty then anything else.