AUSTIN, Texas — Eanes ISD school board members passed Tuesday evening a resolution in support of suspending STAAR testing during the 2020-21 school year as a result of the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The resolution, which passed 4-3, also calls on Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Legislature to suspend the accountability ratings that would result from the test.
"It's really just to show our students that we see them where they are, we're going to meet them where they are and we're going to do the best that ... we can for them no matter what," a board member said.
Much of the discussion centered around the agenda item was the idea that other school districts would likely suffer if STAAR testing was to be administered this year, as many students are learning from home or in a hybrid capacity because of the pandemic.
"We know that rural school districts are not performing well in this pandemic. We know that economically disadvantaged communities are not performing well," a board member said. "If a school or a school district performs poorly on the STAAR, it can have long-range consequences for that school and for that school district. And I don't want to penalize communities that are already disadvantaged by pushing them through STAAR evaluation."
In July, Dr. Tom Leonard, the Eanes ISD superintendent of schools, and Jennifer Champagne, the school board's president, wrote Gov. Abbott, the TEA and several legislators a letter, calling, among other things, for the suspension of STAAR and the A-F system. You can read that letter below.
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