As a student myself, I understand the struggles for STAAR preparations, the four hour periods, and the stress that comes along with it. It’s nerve racking yes, but, in reality, the STAAR is actually helping us for better days to come.

According to the Texas Assessment Management System, parents are able to check their child’s growth by going to the organization’s website (TexasAssessment.com), logging, and scanning their child’s access code at the bottom of their STAAR report card. From there, they can learn more about how their child did on the test, as well as what questions they got right and what your child needs to work more on. “It is an important measure to look at, along with report card grades, teacher reports, and classwork.” It states.

However, you could argue that the STAAR has a bad side to it. For example, The Source interviewed a “Teacher of the year” winner who made in oped saying that teachers should rebel against the STAAR. The website also states that the Texas Education commissioner, Mike Mortah, has stated the test is grade level, despite the reports the test got, like how the test is too hard and the use of the lexile scale (a system commonly used by librarians to determine a child’s reading level). “There are also concerns that the stakes are too high for both students and the schools themselves,” It adds, “that teachers are obligated to just teach the test, and that standardized test results don’t tell the full story of a child’s potential.”

As both websites describe it, the STAAR does not tell the whole story. But if you look closely, the STAAR can be a beneficial solution for your child’s future! Without it, we would basically have a more greater percentage of “dummies,” whom don’t know what to do. So let’s truly reach for the STAARs, both figuratively and physically!