Friday, February 22, 2013

A Change in Standardized Testing



The Austin American Statesman recently reported about standardized testing in Texas. It was called, Rest state's testing system. It is the first bill to pass in either chamber since the beginning of the year. The unpopular testing reform had it to where standardized testing was going to count as 15 end of the course exams that would count as 15%  of the students final grade. But, thank god it never took effect and now it never will.
"The House bill filed by Aycock, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, reduces the number of end-of-course tests required to graduate high school from 15 to five. The bill also, among other changes, ditches current school ratings based on test scores — exemplary, recognized, academically acceptable and academically unacceptable — for the familiar A to F letter grades."(Statesman. Editorial Board)

The legislation does propose for end the year exams to take place for 10th grade students. They will be taking reading, writing, history, algebra, and biology. Also, high school requires students to take 4 years of Algebra, Science, American History, and English, and they plan on changing it this coming session.

I agree with the state changing the standardized testing rules. There should not be a test that determines whether or not a student passes a grade and graduates. What if a student has excellent grades in their classes but has test anxiety when it comes to a huge test. It can break that student and make them fail a grade or lower their GPA to prevent them from going to their dream school. Students shouldn't be punished for the score that is received on a STARR test. Making students take more tests does not make the test scores better. High School students should be prepared for college and what to expect in the career world. Because outside of high school is not all exams.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Everyone has heard about the Sandy Hook shooting that happened in December.  Little kids lost their lives that day. But, since that incident happened more and more schools are talking about making it legal for teachers to have a concealed hand gun license to have it on them while they are at the school. Just for the likelihood that another shooting happens, the teachers can defend the students and take down the shooter.

KXAN reports that there is one lawmaker proposing a bill that will train teachers to also be armed marshals. A number of law enforcement are becoming more away and teachers are willing to do anything to protect the students at schools. 

The director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training(ALERRT), Dan Montague, has had more people interested in doing what they can to be able to protect the faculty and students at schools. 

"After incidents like Sandy Hook and Columbine, it heightens the awareness of all local law enforcement agencies to re-examine their training to specifically respond to an active shooter," said Montague.(KXAN)

The Protections of Children ACT, is at the top of the list of law makers. It will let teachers carry their guns volunteer to carry their guns on campus and be ready if a shooting was to ever happen again. 

School shootings can happen anywhere at any time. Our teachers and faculty members should be ready if it were to happen again. Our children shouldn't be worried about going to school, and should feel safe there. I know I will feel safe with my child at school knowing that they are protected by the faculty having the ability to do so.