advice for TAKS casualties
The TAKS has not been stopped. It appears ready to bulldoze the future of hundreds, thousands more young Texans. Teachers are afraid to speak out. This leaves children standing alone, unprotected.
If your score is low, remember that the test is flawed. this test does not measure your intelligence. this test is not accurate. But don't be naive. You will still be punished for the results. So you must do the best you can. What should a dedicated student do when she or he fails a TAKS?
- 1. don't give up
you have more chances. this test is unfair - just like real life, students in certain districts (cough cough, Plano, Sugar Land, Alamo Heights) get a head start. but remember, the test is not impossible. talk to a friend, teacher, or family member. get advice:
- TAKS, Strategies, Skills, Prep
- TAKS Reading
- TAKS Help tips - 2. practice the TAKS online
we oppose TAKS training: it prevents students from learning the course material. in practice, the TAKS hurts individuals. so TAKS training is hard to avoid. rich parents buy individual tutors, but if your family isn't rich, there are still resources:
- UT TRACK: TAKS Readiness And Core Knowledge
this is a FREE online course. it has helped tens of thousands just in the past 2 years. - 3. tutoring at your school
most districts offer extra tutoring after school. this is far superior to in-class TAKS lessons. you still need to learn math, science, english, spanish, etc. you need college, and colleges aren't impressed by TAKS scores. your administrators will try to pull you out of regular courses. refuse! stay in class and study hard. demand assistance before or after school, or on weekends. examples of programs:
- rhs.rockwallisd.com/mmathews/tutoring.htm
- prosper-isd.net/High_School/TAKS%20tutoring/Math%20TAKS%20Tutoring%20Schedule.pdf
- www.connally.org/connallyes
- www.mesquiteisd.org/library/phs/taks.html - 4. ask your teacher
ask your teacher if she/he thinks it's fair to punish kids for a district's mistakes. ask your teacher why she/he hasn't complained to the school board. ask your teacher to organize a letter writing campaign about the ways testing interferes with school.
show these sites to teachers, counselors, principals. teachers are supposed to help students. if this test hurts students, it is an unethical test. if your school lacks these programs, ask for one. We must stand against administrators -- especially those who, like in Houston two years ago, would advise low scorers to drop out.
posted by TAKS Boycott Association @ 5:28 PM
34 comments
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34 Comments:
My daughter did everything she could to pass the TAKS test. She went every morning to school at 6:30 to wait for tutors who more than often didn't show. She studied the online tests, prepared for every try and still ended up failing 3 out of 4 of the exams. She's never been held back in school, she's not an A student but she tries extremely hard. After this last failed attempt, our family decided she should quit high school (she's 18) and get her GED. What a travesty! Here is this wonderful, kind, thoughtful GOOD teenager who has been told she's basically too stupid to get a diploma even though she's passed all her classes, received all her credits and has an exemplary attendance record.
your daughter has my sympathy. consider telling state representative Olivo, and see what she's proposed to change TAKS. http://www.doraolivo.org/testing.html
your daughter should stay in school through the end of the year. she will still learn, and completing the courses will help her chances of success in a job or in community college, even if that's down the road a way.
kip
My 11 year old son is a casuality, of the taks, he was retained his 5th grade year in a small school district in the hill country. basically his taks score has dropped lower and lower since 3rd grade. Well he didn,t pass 5th grade taks math last year and the school just retained him with out giving us the parents any kind of options to help. HE is now in a bigger and better school and has managed to keep a grade of a c, all year but they still say he has a problem with math. he has been in tuturing since december and well we are hoping he did well. OH,by the way my son has brought that grade up from striaght f,s all last year to straight c,s this year yet they say he hasn,t improveed due to practice scores on the taks. So what can we do why don,t they just not grade on anything else and just study for the passing of the taks, oh wait isn,t that is what is happening already? please help this confused parent
My daughter is an A/B student. Last year, despite and A in math in one of the hardest, best districts in Texas, she failed the math portion of the 5th grade TAKS. She did very well on it her 2nd try. Because of this failure, she has been labled "At Risk" by the district. She is in Pre Ap classes at her junior high and has a 92 in math, yet she cried herself to sleep tonight worried about failing this test. She is dreaming about failing the TAKS. I am going to send the legislature her counseling bills--what they are doing to these kids is criminal.
Today, 4/18/06, my 9 year-old son in taking the Math TAKS for 3rd grade. He is an honor student, mostly A's and has a grade of 84 in math on his last report card which he brought home yesterday. He took a pre-TAKS practice test last week and scored a 50. We worked over the Easter weekend trying to prepare him for the big day today.
If he happens to fail, I'm afraid I won't be able to stay quiet.
I can now understand what other parents are going through. I think that TAKS just is not just an unfair assessment test, but is an injustice.
First off: How do any students in any particular district get a "head start"? The TAKS has the same material no matter who your teacher is or where you live. If you think you should complain about living in a crappy district and not having TAKS help then either MOVE, TRANSFER, or take it into your OWN HANDS.
All of these sob stories about kids failing the TAKS are just showing what the test is for in the first place: to test for a minimum knowledge of things that you've been learning for the past YEAR, if not more. If your child doesn't pass TAKS, they don't get to graduate(or advance, as the case may be).
"He took a pre-TAKS practice test last week and scored a 50. We worked over the Easter weekend trying to prepare him for the big day today."
If you know that your child is going to have problems or be hung up on any subject, a few days before the test isn't a great time to start fixing that. The child has been in school and taught the material; if nothing else during the school year sent up a flag about this potential problem, the child's previous scores would have.
All of these people who are complaining have nothing against the TAKS; they are angry at teachers, themselves, or their own children for not being open about things that happen in school and in which areas they have trouble. The TAKS makes a great scapegoat to pin all your shortcomings as a parent onto; everything mentioned here asserts how much someone doesn't DESERVE to fail TAKS and throws out meaningless emotional drivel any parent feels for their child, nothing based on facts or grades over time. Your kid may get an A in math during group project time, but that's not conclusive evidence of proficiency. The real indicator of how well your kid is doing is: "Hey, my little squirt failed the TAKS!"
Huh. I guess the TAKS must not test the qualities school teaches, like: being "wonderful", being "kind", being "thoughtful", or being "GOOD". The retarded kids at our school are wonderful, kind, thoughtful (yes, retards are very thoughtful), and truly GOOD people; if they took the same level TAKS as we do, I really, REALLY doubt they'd pass. Their parents probably wouldn't be confused about their child's character seeming to have no effect on their score.
The girl who's family decided she should get her GED (this fact says a lot on its own) must not have much more going for her than her "exemplary attendance" if she has failed the TAKS, what sounds like many times, and is fed up. I've known people who come to school every day, no matter what, and NEVER turn in ANYTHING. If everyone could go to tutorials every day, or, hell, even go to a TAKS school seven days a week, people would STILL FAIL. That's the reason the test exists. Apathetic students, the illiterate, and people who don't have much of a mind for, uh, cognative thought, don't have much business passing high school. Your kid can always clean my house for a living, though.
Everyone quitchabitchin' and break out your cat-o-ninetails: your kid needs some solid slavedriving to pull out of their TAKS tailspin.
--Kyle
Junior (just finished up TAKS science -- what a blow-off)
Frisco ISD (I guess some of that "Plano education fairy dust" rubbed off onto me)
Teachers aren't affraid to speak out. We have been yelliing about it for years. Our legislators, in their impotent wisdom believe we want to do away with TAKS because we are lazy and would just sit on our butts if we didn't have these tests. It's the parents who need to rise up and scream in protest.
Kyle is a complete idiot, he must have cheated on the TAKS!!!! Anyone can be successful, just look at our current president,which by the way is the reason schools are so focused on highstakes testing. I wonder would he be able to pass the TAKS?
My "straight A " son just failed the writing portion of the 5TH GRADE TAKS test. He is considered gifted and talented and his strongest subject is writing. His practice scores were ALL 100's....but now he will be labeled "at risk" ....this is CRAZY!!!!!!
--Kyle
Junior (just finished up TAKS science -- what a blow-off)
Frisco ISD (I guess some of that "Plano education fairy dust" rubbed off onto me)
Yes Kyle is An IDIOT!!!What Kyle? Is your daddy some kind of politician?My daughter is also a TAKS casualty.She has made all A's except one B all year.She also failed the math Taks.If she is ever retained because of that stupid test,I will be pulling her out and homeschooling her.
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My daughter has been "commended" on all her 3rd and 4th grade TAKS tests. Now in 5th grade she has now failed the math taks 2 times and is now attending summer school to take it again in June. I do not think it is fair that we can't have a copy of these tests results. All we get is a paper stating how many wrong and how many right in each category. I think its really odd that summer school is FULL of minority children and my daughter keeps failing the taks by 1 point!! How do we really know that the results are real or fixed? Klein school district collected $330,000 in school funding for these kids to go to summer school in 2005. My daughter was told that if she didnt pass the TAKS that the school would lose funding and she should feel bad about that and she was also told after the first time she failed it that she needed medication. I made a formal complaint, since these remarks are illegal, but nothing was done about it and here we sit.
I am a test coordinator in a larger school district. My first comment is that I do not trust the company that grades the test. I have seen at least 1 student a year be "re-graded" after I resubmitted their score and it turned out that they did pass after all. The other issue that needs to enter into the discussion is the fact that over 16 school days are lost to the administration of the test itself. That does NOT include the "field tests" we are forced to give. None of this testing prepares students for life, we have students getting profesional licenses in various vocational fields that are missing the Exit Level TAKS by just a few points. They evidently are already able to hold a job and be a contributing member of society. Isn't that what school should be about?
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Unfortunately, Kyle does have a couple of good points, but the problem isn't with the test, it is with the "all or nothing" consequenses that come with failing a "test". Why do the kids come to school and do regular school work when it doesn't really matter how well they do in school if they don't test well or just have a bad day? I know that in 3 years it will be a little better because the state will take the TAKS test and their grades into consideration..But I'm worried about now and all the 5th, 8th and 11th graders that are stressed out because they are "smart"enough to make good grades in classes but not on the TAKS test. My daughter did really well on the 7th grade test, but fails the 8th grade Math test by 1 point...Yes, and she failed the 2nd as well. Does she need help in Math? Yes, she does. Should she be punished? Well apparently the state of TExas says yes.
What tyou're all missing is this:
If your child's teacher has been assigning A's to their work all year but then you find your child unable to pass TAKS you need to question the true level and rigor of learning in the classroom. If the teacher is teaching higher-level critical thinking and making students produce quality (not fluff) products ON THEIR OWN that truly demonstrate their ability to perfrom, they shouldn't have issues on TAKS.
--Jamie
4th Grade Teacher
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