Raise Your Hand Texas urges reform of the accountability system for public education (English)

Right now, several education-bills are moving through the Texas Legislature. And, Libby Cohen—the senior director of advocacy at “Raise Your Hand Texas”—hopes to see changes to how the state’s “Assessment and Accountability”-system measures academic success… “Our current ‘STAAR’-based accountability-system for public schools’ ‘A’-through-‘F’ letter-grades provides stakeholders with just one useful data-point. Unfortunately, this dependency on limited-perspective, standardized testing does a disservice to teachers, students, public schools, and communities. A well-rounded set of indicators would give our communities a richer picture of the distinct and varied efforts that Texas-schools make to ensure positive outcomes for all students. From high-quality ‘Pre-K’-programs to strong family-engagement—to college- and career-counseling—there’s so much more that goes into long-term student-success than test-prep. But right now, Texans don’t have the full picture of their public schools.” To learn more, visit “measure-what-matters-t-x”-dot-org.