The Magnolia Independent School District announced at its regular school board meeting Feb. 14 that as Texas schools face potential budget cuts through the Texas Legislature, schools will also be implementing a new comprehensive exam starting in August.

The State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam is aimed at better measuring the academic performance of students as they progress through the school year, according to the Director of Curriculum Anita Herbert.

“They want a vertically aligned test,” she said.

STAAR will specifically test the content that students are learning during their current year, especially in high school, as opposed to the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exam which caused teachers to pause during their curriculum to teach material from TAKS.

According to Herbert, the test is geared toward better preparing students for college so that remedial classes won’t be necessary.

“We’ve worked on that in Magnolia in the last several years, making sure that we’ve prepared our students well,” she said. “But that’s what the STAAR test will do, is give us a readiness measure.”

Herbert stated that the STAAR exam is said to have a higher cognitive complexity level.

“There will be more critical analysis,” she said. “These will be more analyzed and synthesized.”

Tests are divided into two categories. Grades 3 through 8 will take readiness tests and grades 8 through 12 with take end-of-course exams in order to graduate. There will be 12 end-of-course exams required for graduation, Herbert said.

“We are really pushing students to be much more active in their learning,” she said.

Students currently in eighth grade will begin taking end-of course exams in the 2011-12 school year. Students currently in ninth through 12th will continue to take TAKS until graduation.

End-of-course exams include English I, II and III, Algebra I and II, Geometry, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, World History, World Geography and U.S. History.

Although much information on the test is unknown, Herbert said teachers and parents should understand what the students will be required to obtain in order to graduate.

According to Herbert, students must achieve a cumulative score in each content area such as Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

Schools will have the option to include the grades with the student’s grade point average, but it is required that the test results count as 15 percent of the student’s grade.

“We don’t know what those scores will look like and how to transfer that into a grade,” Herbert said.

Students will also have the opportunity to retake tests, according to Herbert.

In order to retake tests Herbert predicted that the school would be required to provide the materials and necessary classroom space for the students within its budget.

However, the Texas Legislature is facing a budget shortfall and has predicted education will receive $9.8 billion less that the previous biennium.

“The state is still asking us to do this (administer tests) while telling us we’re not important enough to be funded,” she said.

According to Herbert, the first sample test will not be available until August. She added that teachers will need to work together to develop a vertical plan in their curriculum.

“Were going to need teacher training, let them plan and staff development,” she said. “And we’ve got to have resources in order to help us achieve this, at a time when our resources are drying up.”

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