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View Full Version : Louisiana kids score ultra low on Texas tests


slickdawg
3/27/2006, 04:10 PM
On average, the Louisiana kids are scoring 30% lower than
the Texas kids on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills
standardized test.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/14176639.htm
Howzit
3/27/2006, 04:14 PM
I would assume the Texas kids have a big advantage, in that they are taught on how to take the tests from an early age. My daughter has been at Flower Mound schools since the 4th grade (she is a freshman this year), and every year there is a week or so that is spent in preparation for the tests.
IronSooner
3/27/2006, 04:17 PM
To help ease the burden on schools, the TEA announced Thursday that all federal aid sent to Texas for educating hurricane evacuees will be given to affected districts.

I'm a little confused as to why this sentence was necessary. Were they going to divide it evenly over the entire state and let western districts spend it on beer?
Penguin
3/27/2006, 04:21 PM
I'm not surprised. Ship in kids from almost any other state and it's a different story.
mdklatt
3/27/2006, 04:31 PM
every year there is a week or so that is spent in preparation for the tests

Only one week? She's lucky. And seriously, if you need extra preparation for the TAAS/TAKS/whatever you're beyond help to begin with.
Vaevictis
3/27/2006, 04:41 PM
When I was in school in Houston, they spent literally 2 straight months of time in the English class in prep for the TAAS test, with a week here and there up until the time the 2 straight months started.

The TAAS test (TAKS now, I guess) is just there to catch the boneheads that should have been failed years ago. To be honest, I feel sorry for the kids that can't pass it. If someone would just bloody fail their arses instead of socially promoting them, then some of them would get the message that they aren't doing ok.
BeetDigger
3/27/2006, 04:59 PM
Only one week? She's lucky. And seriously, if you need extra preparation for the TAAS/TAKS/whatever you're beyond help to begin with.


There are two separate issues with working with the kids on taking the tests. One issue is in just teaching them the layout of the test and test taking skills. The other issue is the information on the tests. The latter should be what they are assessing. The former is just to make sure they have the best chance of being assessed properly.
BeetDigger
3/27/2006, 05:13 PM
When I was in school in Houston, they spent literally 2 straight months of time in the English class in prep for the TAAS test, with a week here and there up until the time the 2 straight months started.

The TAAS test (TAKS now, I guess) is just there to catch the boneheads that should have been failed years ago. To be honest, I feel sorry for the kids that can't pass it. If someone would just bloody fail their arses instead of socially promoting them, then some of them would get the message that they aren't doing ok.


My wife tutors kids. She gets lots of business around Taks time. Some kids are just needing a few weeks of brush up on test taking skills and on basic skills like multiplication factors to ensure that they don't miss problems that they can really solve.

However, she gets some that are hopeless. These are the kids who should be in tutoring for months and months to help get them up to where they need to be. Not just to pass Taks, but to make sure that they have the ability to continue to move forward.

One parent recently had their kid come to her for two weeks. He was very far behind. The mother stopped bringing him in due to her prioritizing other things over getting him tutored. He flunked. And he is about to flunk the math section. Her older one flunked the 7th grade tests. This lady is a mess. Her kids are already far behind and it is getting worse and her choices are not addressing their problems.
Howzit
3/27/2006, 05:14 PM
Only one week? She's lucky. And seriously, if you need extra preparation for the TAAS/TAKS/whatever you're beyond help to begin with.

Did you take yours uphill? In the snow? ;)

That's how the Texas schools are evaluated, and they put a lot of effort into it.
mdklatt
3/27/2006, 05:20 PM
That's how the Texas schools are evaluated, and they put a lot of effort into it.

At the expense of other stuff, unfortunately. I spent quite a bit of time in pre-calculus "learning" how to do arithmetic. Is the format of the test that hard to figure out? Maybe if you've never seen a multiple choice test before. I can understand extra preparation for elementary school, but by the time you're in high shchool you should have taken enough standardized tests to know what's going on no matter where you're from. The essay portion is worthy of a little extra preperation since they seem to expect a specific format--the infamous Five Paragraph Essay.
Hatfield
3/27/2006, 05:21 PM
is scoring low on a texas test really a bad thing?

the cajuns probably failed the "how to make excuses" and "running your mouth" portions of the tests. ;)
OklahomaTuba
3/27/2006, 05:37 PM
I bet those kids could do very well at UT, since Vince did.
TUSooner
3/27/2006, 06:00 PM
I'm not surprised - mostly because I saw the article the other day. :)

Most of the NO folks still in Tejas are the semi-literate products of the New Orleans public school system.
BajaOklahoma
3/27/2006, 09:06 PM
Most of the kids from LA are being given the option of graduating with a diploma from their LA school (under their requirements) or graduating with a TX diploma (meeting TX requirements). Most of the kids haven't taken the required classes to qualify for a TX diploma. In TX, the kids have 3 required math classes to graduate - no substitutions. In LA, they can choose from 12 different classes to meet the math requirements.
jrsooner
3/27/2006, 11:53 PM
I'm a little confused as to why this sentence was necessary. Were they going to divide it evenly over the entire state and let western districts spend it on beer?Haven't read the article yet, but the "Robin Hood" bill may play into it. It seems that they "rob" property taxes from one school district to help pay for another school district. They may be considering the "payout" by the gov't to be the same type of funds and can be redistricted.
RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!
3/28/2006, 12:27 AM
is scoring low on a texas test really a bad thing?

the cajuns probably failed the "how to make excuses" and "running your mouth" portions of the tests. ;)Excellent points, and besides, why would kids from LA know anything about Sam Houston, why the stupid whorns chose a silly a*sed neutered cow as a mascot, or why it is that texas sucks.:mack: