Thursday, January 17, 2013

Texas: Great in Accountability; Not so Great in Achievement

The Dallas New Education blog has an entry describing how well Texas is doing in accountability and testing here.  My comments:


Hmmm.   C-minus in K-12 achievement?  I would argue that is the most important marker.  Who cares if the state is doing great in testing and standards if the kids aren’t learning?

There is an easy solution to this.  Make the development of avid readers a priority in Texas schools.  Flood the schools and classrooms with reading material that is fascinating to kids.  Introduce large amounts of free-choice reading into the curriculum.  Give the kids lots of time in school to curl up with a book of their own choice

Avid readers read better, write better, concentrate better, and have wider frames of reference that make all learning easier.  Developing avid readers—rather than a showy system of standards and assessments—should be the main goal of Texas schools.

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