Optional state exam shows some Texas students struggle due to school closures

AUSTIN, Texas — A report from the Texas Education Agency shows the school closures from last year due to COVID along with no standardized testing resulted in over five months of instructional loss and decreases in pass rates for some core subjects.

Some educators feel the report didn’t have enough participation from students to measure academics adequately, and student grading shouldn’t be measured like it has been during a pandemic.

“We use these to explain proportion, we made these calipers so you can find a mid-point with them,” said Lauren Siegel holding up the instrument in front of her web cam.

Siegel is the Director of the Math Happens Foundation. She was posed with the challenge every teacher is facing these days – how to get students excited about core subjects.

She explained how she was able to turn household items into calipers for students to use at home. She even won an award for her lesson plan on proportions and ratios from the National Museum of Mathematics.

“We went back to the drawing board and got some cereal boxes, these are hole punch holes and these are uninflated balloons and they make a really kind of cool joint,” she said showing her creation before the camera.

She told us other educators in her circle tell have shared on social media that some students aren’t turning on their cameras during instruction and are at risk of falling behind in core subjects.

"Teachers are really trying creative things. They are trying way to go outside, there’s sidewalk chalk math, (teachers) are very aware that students need breaks from the screen,” she said.

On Thursday, The Texas Education Agency put out results for an optional beginning-of-the-year assessment so schools could measure how well students learned in the prior grade-level.

Of the more than 5 million Texas students in public schools, only 648,690 students from 334 different school systems took the optional beginning-of-the-year exam; roughly 11% of Texas public school students.

The TEA measures because of COVID school closures, Texas Students lost over five months of instruction - including 2.5 months for summer break.

The exams results show decreases in pass rates for all tests with the largest in 5th grade science where the pass rate dropped 52% from last school year to this year.

Siegel says she’s studied how students test when there is stresses in their lives.

“What my study was just looking at the variation of how they performed on the test and they might do great one day and then compare them from six months from then and they don’t do well. There is so much variation in their lives. I think all of us have that variation now,” said Siegel.

Of the less than 650 thousand students who did take the beginning-of-the year exam – less than 900 were from Austin ISD, we’re told.

The district issued a statement:

Austin ISD did not require participation in the Texas Education Agency's Optional Beginning-of-Year assessments. Overall, 855 students completed one or more of the optional tests.

”It’s irresponsible number counting,” said Ken Zarifis, President of the Austin ISD employees union.

Zarifis said the TEA should focus on what adjustment in the classroom are working and less comparison to how students performed before COVID.

”This is about how teachers were able to pivot and provide instruction in a way no one could ever imagine system wide. It’s happening throughout the country. TEA needs to focus on the strengths of teaching and what we’re learning from this and no bludgeon people with a worthless report,” said Zarifis.