Objectifying Measures: The Dominance of High-Stakes Testing and the Politics of Schooling

Chronology: Timeline of Testing in Texas, 1970– 2003

Chronology Timeline of Testing in Texas 1970–2003 1970 U.S. District Court rules in United States v. Texas that the Texas Education Agency must desegregate schools in Texas. 1979 District court orders Austin Independent School District to desegregate through busing. 1979 William Clements is the first Republican governor since Reconstruction . He runs on an antibusing platform. 1980 Texas Legislature passes the Equal Educational Opportunity Act, which establishes the first state-mandated testing system, the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills. 1982 Mark White is elected governor of Texas. Teacher-led organizations were crucial in mobilizing votes for White, as he ran on a platform that promised to raise teachers’ salaries. 1983 Governor Mark White creates the Select Committee on Public Education to reform the educational system and appoints billionaire Ross Perot to lead the committee. Texas Legislature passes House Bill 72, which includes teacher certification exams, a no-pass, no-play rule, and new state-mandated exams (Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills, or TEAMS) that at the high school level require passage for a diploma. 1984 The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) along with the Equity Center file suit against the state of 160 \ Chronology Texas in order to equalize funding between poor and rich Texas districts in Edgewood v. Kirby. 1990 In Edgewood v. Kirby, the Texas Supreme Court deems the Texas school finance system unconstitutional. The court orders the legislature to devise a finance bill that would successfully equalize “adequate ” and “efficient” funding. 1990 The State Board of Education approves a more difficult statewide testing system, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). The approval comes despite statewide poor performance on the 1989 TEAMS and projections that on the new high school exit exams at least 73 percent of African Americans and 67 percent of Hispanics (versus 50 percent of Whites) would fail the math portion of the test; at least 53 percent of African Americans and 54 percent of Hispanics (versus 29 percent of Whites) would fail the reading section ; and at least 62 percent of African Americans and 45 percent of Hispanics (versus 36 percent of Whites) would fail the writing section (GI Forum et al. v. Texas Education Agency et al. 87 F. Supp. 2d 667 [2000]). 1995 The Supreme Court finally approves legislation to equalize funding according to Edgewood v. Kirby. The bill, dubbed “Robin Hood,” contains the provision of an accountability system in which schools and districts are given ratings based on the state-mandated test, the TAAS, dropout statistics, and school attendance rates. 1995 The NAACP files a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights concerning the disproportionate racial impact of the TAAS test and reaches a settlement with the Texas Education Agency on the agreement that the agency would provide proper remediation for students who failed the TAAS. 1997 MALDEF files suit against the Texas Education Agency in GI Forum et al. v. Texas Education Agency et al., claiming that the TAAS exit exam (which high school students were required to pass in order to graduate) disproportionately impacted African American and Mexican American students. 1999 Under the leadership of Governor George W. Bush, the Texas Legislature passes the “no social promotion bill,” requiring third-, fifth-, and eighth-grade students to pass the state-mandated exam in order to be promoted to the following grade. The high school exit exam was to be taken in the eleventh grade, and the Texas Education Agency was to develop a more rigorous standardized test, which would become the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). Chronology / 161 2000 Judge Edward Prado dismisses the plaintiffs’ case in GI Forum et al. v. Texas Education Agency et al., ruling that: In short, the Court finds, on the basis of the evidence presented at trial, that the disparities in test scores do not result from flaws in the test or in the way it is administered. Instead , as the Plaintiffs themselves have argued, some minority students have, for a myriad of reasons, failed to keep up (or catch up) with their majority counterparts. It may be, as the TEA argues, that the TAAS test is one weapon in the fight to remedy this problem. (GI Forum et al. v. Texas Education Agency et al. 87 F. Supp. 2d 667 [2000]) 2003 The TAKS is first administered. For the first time, third-grade students are required to pass the TAKS in order to...