STAAR? Is it good for students, or is it too high stakes? The STAAR can be a very stressful test, especially in 5th and 8th grade. If students don’t pass the test they may be held back from the next grade, or they have to go to summer school.

From my experiences, when it gets close to STAAR the teachers just review, review,and after that some more review. It gets VERY, VERY, VERY boring and tiring of just hearing about the days left until STAAR and by the end I want to stay home from school just to be rid of it. Last year in 7th grade it was confusing how we did test day instead of being in my homeroom/1st period class I was in some random room and I did not like it.

According to Texas Assessment Management Website the STAAR isn’t the only way the students academic progress is tracked, but how can we still get an accurate look at the academic progress of students if it possibly isn’t even on grade level.Some rumors state that the reading test may not actually be on level for the grade, apparently it might 2-3 reading levels above the grade level that is being tested.

According to Texas Public Radio some defense  says that it needs to be more challenging to get students to that frustration point of really needing to focus. Others say that just giving them a 4-5 hour test is enough frustration on the students. I also feel that maybe just the test is enough stress and frustration for the students.

So is the STAAR good for student I think yes, we do need to see their academic progress to see how well the students are learning and how well the teachers teach the skills in the curriculum, but  I do feel that they put too much pressure on one test.