A local parent fighting STAAR
A local parent has been leading the charge to try and tamp down the State Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR), and now she is holding a rally in hopes of stopping the test altogether.
Diane Lewis, whose daughter goes to Danforth Junior High, is one of five parents suing the Texas Education Agency alleging the STAAR does not follow state guidelines. The lawsuit has been going on since 2016, and the parents were recently granted standing status by a District Court judge saying the parents did, in fact, have the right to sue the agency.
The lawsuit alleges that the agency isn’t following state law, which in 2016 required that the STAAR test be shortened for elementary and junior high students. In fact, some local teachers were heavily involved in helping get the state law passed that required the STAAR to be shortened.
However, since the lawsuit began, Lewis has decided to go a step further. She doesn’t simply want put STAAR shortened, she wants it gone.
“I want to eliminate the test,” Lewis said. “I have gone a step further. I am sick of it, and I am tired of the threats and retaliation saying that parents can’t opt their kids out. Not here in Wimberley, but at other school districts, parents are being threatened that if their kids don’t go to school to take the STAAR they will be arrested. They are being bullied.”
Lewis said the tests, which she called “highstakes testing” puts too much pressure on kids. Some tests are even required to be passed for students to continue to the next grade level.
“When students are passing all their classes, doing good in school and they have test anxiety, they don’t do well and it makes kids feel like a failure,” Lewis said. “It creates labels for kids. It makes them winners or losers.”
Lewis stressed that parents do have the option to opt their child out of STAAR testing, though cautioned that the process is difficult and must follow procedures outlines in the TEA’s Student Success Initiative. However, she does feel that if more students were to opt out from the test that it would “be sending a louder message to the TEA.”
Lewis will hold a No More STAAR rally on the south steps of the State Capitol on August 4 at 10 a.m. The rally is sponsored by State Representative Jason Isaac. Lewis said the sponsorship doesn’t involve monetary support, but a government official is required to sponsor an event for it to be allowed on the capitol grounds.
More information on the rally can be found on Facebook by searching for “No More STAAR Rally - Austin Texas South Steps.” Lehas also started a petition on Change.org against the STAAR, called “No More STAAR: End High-Stakes Testing in Texas,” which has garnered more than 6,300 signatures to date.