Essay Example about STAAR Testing

Fifty seven percent of students failed to meet the standard on the reading portion of the STAAR test while sixty five percent failed to meet the standard on the math portion1  shocking statistics for a test so widely recognized as a measure of academic adeptness. STAAR tests prey on Texas students, masking their horrible impacts with the idea that they’re beneficial to the students long-term success, causing more harm than good.

The obvious downsides to the STAAR test often get overlooked due to the state’s overwhelming support for the test and its few positive impacts. Standardized testing covers five areas of subject in an attempt to “measure what students are learning in each grade and whether or not they are ready for the next grade."2 and while this is the easiest way to measure progress, it’s certainly not a direct reflection of a students intelligence or whether they are academically adept for the next grade level. The key to success on the STAAR is memorization- if you can memorize information, you’ll pass but intelligence on the other hand, is measured in understanding, a concept that’s not tested on STAAR; a student could be extremely smart but not be able to memorize the information and because of this, the test won’t bode well for their intelligence. If the student fails, they are seen as not academically ready for the next grade when in reality, they have the intelligence for the next grade, they understand what they’ve already learned, they just have bad memory. This, along with many other factors, result in the STAAR being inexpedient to students and therefore bad. 

STAAR claims to be an adequate option for measuring academic readiness but in this situation, the bad outweighs the good; the negative impacts of the test don’t measure up to the benefits one could attain by passing.