My son makes straight A's in everything except math where he's been struggling to make a C. My wife just told me that if he doesn't score high enough on the upcoming STAAR testing in math that he would fail and have to be held back. Can anyone let me know if this is indeed true? If so this doesn't make any sense. Make straight A's in every subject but struggle in one area and you're held back? Also, any parents out there who had a child that struggled with math around 9 yrs of age? If so what did you do? His teacher is working with him extra, me and my wife are working with him, my father is working with him, but he's just not grasping it like the other subjects. Any advice would be most welcome. Thanks!
I don't have a solution nor do I know anything about the STAAR testing, but I wasn't any good at math either. In my case, I had to really understand the formula or the steps, as in why we do this and that... the reasoning behind it. If I can't grasp the reasoning at the start, then everything else from there might as well be in Chinese. Maybe your son missed something in the very beginning in the first days of the lesson and now the snowball effect has grown too big? I had to go all the way back to the first-day lesson to understand math. I dunno, that's just my experience... hope he improves. Math sucks.
The STAAR test was just implemented a couple of years ago, if not last year, I believe. Because of this, I can't offer any firsthand experience, but I can tell you that as far as the TAKS test went, there was a threshold for advancement to the next grade. Granted, this threshold was pretty low, but it still had to be met. ** I just did some quick research for you, and apparently specific grade level require that their students pass ALL given STAAR test in order to progress to the next grade. These grade levels are 3rd, 5th, and 8th. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Texas_Assessments_of_Academic_Readiness
My 11 year old son is taking it next week as well. The district he's in (Lewisville ISD) and the school he's at is supposedly one of the best in this area. That being said, they have been doing jack to prepare them for this test. Of course, I don't remember my teachers preparing me for the TAAS 20+ years ago either but you'd think there would be a consistent and steady stream of practice and review for such a big test. Nope. What they did was give the kids an evaluation test way back in November/December, forget about the whole thing, and BOOM start cramming the kids just this week.
When i was in High school we took the TAKS test and what they did if you failed a portion of the exam was you would have to retake it your senior year. If you did not pass it your senior year then you could not graduate.
why? then all he would know how to do is pass a test. passing a test is nothing compared to actually learning critical thinking and problem solving. hope his teachers are actually teaching and developing his critical thinking skills.
Not to derail the topic, but that has been one of the major complaints against this sort of testing. The teachers are teaching to the tests and not to the subjects matter.
Kids get full textbooks at the beginning of the year and there's a library in every county. The school and the state are trying to maximize and track the number of kids with basic reading, math and social studies skills out of a population of millions. Especially in the online era, a kid's individual academic enrichment should be the responsibility of the parents.
I did both the TAAS and TAKS tests. I can't offer advice, but I have heard about how the test is more important for some grades than others, like New Generation mentioned.
Lol I have fond memories of the TAKS. Same questions every year in history. Who was president of the United States during the civil war? To the OP: I don't know much about STAAR, but the TAKS math test was divided up into 6 or so different sections including logic and reasoning, fractions, word problems, etc. I would have your son do a couple of practice tests, find out the specific weaknesses he has in one of the 6 math sections, and focus on it. Also by taking the practice STAAR tests he would become acclimated to the format, and wording of the questions.
If he fails STAAR, he won't be promoted. He'll probably have to go to Summer School because passing STAAR is one of the promotion standards. As a teacher and parent myself, I can tell you that the abundance and importance of testing in education today is absolutely ridiculous. My son is a 1st grader and one of his promotion standards was to pass a high frequency word test. Never mind that he gets good grades in class and does his work or that his reading and writing have improved immensely since last year. He fails the test, he's held back. And he was stressing about it for several months leading up to the test. This a 6 year old kid and he's worried about not moving on to 2nd Grade because of a test. I've heard stories of students breaking down and crying because of the pressure put on them by STAAR. I really wish our country would look more to Finland's model, but for whatever reason (money probably has to do with it) our bureaucrats think measuring student and teacher performance on a one-size-fits all multiple choice test is an accurate tool to gauge how much they truly understand about the world. I also can say, while I've never taken or administered STAAR myself, the sample questions I've seen are more complex than the TAKS was. For math, the questions often require you to work through several steps in order to find the answer.
I disagree. A child is sent to school to learn the subject matter not to learn how to pass an achievement test. The parents responsibility is to get them to school and help the kids out when necessary by being there for them and maintaining an environment in which they can do their school related work NOT to teach them Algebra.
My first state test was the first year of the TAKS, though I was aware of the TAAS test because my friend took it. It sounded weird though, because the way it's pronounced I was like "what the hell is a toss test?" lol I just missed having to take the STAAR thankfully, so sorry I don't have any info on that
To OP-Possibly. There are several factors to consider. 1) it depends on his grade level. It is only mandatory pass in certain grades. If he is in a mandatory grade, then he will have 3 chances to pass it. If he isn't then he will only take it once and if he fails it is at the schools discretion how they handle it. Most schools factor in grades, attendance and STAAR to determine holding students back. 2) Passing is a relative term. The passing score has been pretty low since they started STAAR. In one subject they only had to get like 43% right to "pass". That standard has gone up every year, but last year it was still pretty low. Personally, I would not worry too much unless he has not passed it on the second attempt. If he doesn't pass the first the school should provide some sort of remediation to try to get him ready for the second attempt. If he fails that one he will most likely have to go to some sort of summer school to prepare him for the third attempt.
