Due to the many problems districts faced with the spring 2016 STAAR administration, the Weatherford Democrat recently interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Hanks, superintendent of Weatherford ISD, a member of TASA’s School Transformation Network, on his views on the statewide standardized student assessment.

Hanks told the newspaper that he feels that while testing standards should be taught, the STAAR test is not a fully comprehensive indicator of a student’s academic success.

“Testing is so pervasive.” Hanks said. “I think what we have to do is very consciously make some decisions on whether we’re going to provide the quality or the type of education that our parents and that our kids want and that our community wants, or stay in this incessant game of playing the testing game and try to score on that when you can’t do the other things that are required of people in life to be successful.”

Hanks said that Weatherford ISD is working hard to change the dynamics of testing in the district, making testing “one indicator out of many that tell us and our community how well of an education our kids get.”

Read the full Weatherford Democrat article.
 
Districts that are part of TASA’s School Transformation Network support the principles of Mission: School Transformation, including community-based accountability and reducing the public school accountability system’s over-reliance on high-stakes testing.