In the blog titled Cost of Standardized Testing in Texas Increases Ten-Fold From 2000-2009 by Phillip Martin, He's talking about how much more taxpayers will end up paying.
Mr. Martin is bloging about an original column that was posted in the Austin American Statesman "State’s Demands forced school cost to shoot up." by Jason Embry. The column is about how as the student population increases, so does the demands for schools education, and the cost of money. This including all the Higher education tests.. that are to measure the students academic level or the schools level of teaching?? All this demand just causes stress for the schools facility and competing with other schools to have the highest test scores.
Due to all the required testing materials for students to pass these standardized test the school districts are spending more money on hiring more staff to ensure the students have the help needed to be able to pass, teachers to spend extra time with the students that need more tutoring, testing materials, study guides, and the staff to administer the test. Mr. Martin has found out exactly how much the cost of standardized testing went up under the Perry/Bush era of standardized testing... which come out to be a whopping 93 million! Well that is the amount that he found from a blog from 2009 on "The high cost of TAKS" that's is said to be 10 times more than 2000 with all the budget cuts that's going on now and in 2010.. I can't seem to grasp how they are planning for these students to have the opportunity to pass. Unless these students go to school just to cram in all this testing material and they no longer teach the normal things like I learned in school a million years ago. :-) Which I must say I don't remember what "normal" things I learned. I do hope that some how Texas figures out a better way to increase our students education or lower the cost of all these required standardized testing so that when they do start firing teachers for the budget cuts it doesn't hurt the students as much as I see it happening in my head. I now have a headache thinking about all this so...Good night!
In Ms. Quinones commentary on the article, "Standardized Testing in Texas Increases Ten Fold From 2009-2010,"she tells how much more money taxpayers will end up paying for standarded testing in Texas. Obviously, the higher the student population, the higher the education costs rise to meet the demand. This seems logical, but Ms. Quinones has to wonder whether the testing is used for the student's academic level or simply the school's level of teaching. There is an abundance of money spent on hiring more teachers to teach the material.Tutors, study guides, and other helpful testing materials are also necessary in preparing students to do well on the tests. It was calculated how much money will be spent on these tests in the Perry/Bush era and it came out to be about 93 million dollars.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Ms. Quinones when she questions whether or not these standardizing are at all helpful to students. Not only is this costing the state an arm and a leg, but it is, and has been for a long time, hurting the Texas k12 education and the student’s ability to pass. It seems like it is more a more expensive and less effective way to educate the students of Texas. Considering the fact that Texas is ranked in the bottom ten for k12 education I think it is time that we try something different that might also involve saving millions of dollars. We could possibly stop focusing on tests that analyze crammed test material and teach what is actually going to be needed in the higher education world. It’s a win-win situation.