Rep. Isaac Unveils The Teaching Over Testing Act
AUSTIN — Rep. Jason Isaac (R-Dripping Springs) today announced the filing of the Teaching Over Testing Act, a bill designed to radically reduce the impact of standardized testing on Texas’ students, educators, and taxpayers.
“Texas is a diverse state, but if there is anything people from Amarillo to Brownsville and El Paso to Beaumont and people from both political parties can agree on, it’s that STAAR is a disservice to the students we will one day rely on as our next generation of leaders.”
House Bill 1333, dubbed the Teaching Over Testing Act, aims to move the focus in public education away from standardized testing and back to the classroom through four critical reforms:
- Allowing school districts to select alternative test providers
- Reducing the number of tests
- Removing STAAR scores from teacher evaluations
- Reducing the weight of STAAR scores in A-F ratings
The bill has already received bipartisan support from all across the Lone Star State and has been joint-authored so far by Reps. Rodney Anderson (R-Grand Prairie), Joe Deshotel (D-Beaumont), and Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston).
“I’m thrilled by the bipartisan support this legislation is receiving,” Rep. Isaac continued. “It’s time we shift the focus of public education away from standardized testing and back to the classroom where it belongs.”
A one-pager explaining HB 1333 in more detail is available here.
Representing Blanco and Hays counties, Rep. Isaac has served House District 45 in the Texas Legislature since 2011. He is a member of the Economic and Small Business Development, Environmental Regulation, and Local and Consent Calendars committees and is chair of the Subcommittee on Small Business. He lives in Drippings Springs with his wife, Carrie, and two sons.
It shows bias for the author to be vague on summary point #2 when, in the same amount of space, the article could be more accurate and informative for the readers. Instead of “reducing the number of tests [from 21 to 17],” it is much more informative and accurate to state “eliminating all writing and social studies tests.”
The author also quotes Isaac: “With 17 tests between 3rd through 12th grade, I
think you’re going to have plenty of testing opportunities to find out
how students are doing and how they’re prepared.”
Well, yes, in reading and math and, to a lesser degree, science; but not in writing or social studies.
I’m not sure whether I am for or against this bill, but I am for an end to #fakenews — in this case a summary, which few will read beyond, that purposely implies that the bill would reduce the quantity of tests without really changing our understanding of what public school student in Texas are learning … instead of the truth, that the bill would eliminate all statewide testing in two critical subject areas, resulting in a side effect of fewer tests (21 minus 2 writing minus 2 social studies = 17).