{"id":2727,"date":"2026-03-20T08:03:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/?p=2727"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:30:18","slug":"tame_staar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/tame_staar\/","title":{"rendered":"We can tame the STAAR Beast!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The STAAR Test is a Beast. Let's Tame it. <\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\u00a0<\/p>

I’m Ashley Bean Thornton, and I am running for the Texas House of Representatives, House District 56.\u00a0 If you like what I have to say, and you live in HD 56, I hope you will vote for me in November 2026.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I hope you will subscribe to my newsletter: https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/stay-in-the-loop\/.<\/a>\u00a0 Thank you!\u00a0 Let’s build the Texas we want to live in!\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\nBy Ashley Bean Thornton

\nThe first STAAR test was in 2012. It has done three things for us:

\n\n1. It\u2019s reminded us that kids growing up with less have a harder time on tests. (We already knew that!)

\n\n2. It\u2019s sapped the joy out of learning for kids \u2014 and out of teaching for teachers.

\n\n3. And it\u2019s cost us a whole lot of money.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nWhat it hasn\u2019t done is help our kids learn more or help our teachers teach better.

\n\nWe can do better.<\/b>

\n\nHere\u2019s what I think would help:

\n\n1. Reduce the number of TEKs for elementary grades. <\/b>

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We are overwhelming kindergarten and elementary teachers and students with hundreds of standards (TEKs) to cover, forcing them to race through content without ensuring deep understanding.\n\nWe should streamline early-grade standards to focus on fewer, more developmentally appropriate, essential skills\u2014allowing teachers to teach for mastery, not just coverage <\/p>\n\n

2. Streamline the number of required standardized tests.<\/b>

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We require students to take dozens of standardized tests from grades 3-12. Testing and test prep, create “test fatigue” and take valuable time away from actual learning.\n\nWe should streamline testing to only what’s truly necessary for accountability, giving teachers more time to teach and students more time to learn deeply.<\/p>\n\n

3. Focus standardized tests on measuring foundational skills.<\/b>

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We use standardized tests to measure everything from basic reading to complex analysis, even though standardized tests aren’t good at measuring higher-order thinking.\n\nWe should focus our use of standardized tests on measuring foundational skills like reading comprehension and math fluency\u2014things they actually measure well.<\/p>\n\n

4. Use multiple methods to measure critical thinking and advanced skills.<\/b>

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We try to reduce critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving to multiple-choice questions. But standardized tests do not do a good job of measuring these complex abilities.\n\nWe should use portfolios, projects, presentations, classwork, class discussion, essays and performance tasks at the teacher’s discretion to grow and assess the advanced skills students need for college and careers.<\/p>\n\n

5. Get rid of A-F ratings. Report growth and achievement, not just ratings.<\/b>

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The success or failure of a school is too complicated to be described in a single rating. Labeling schools and districts with a single A-F grade gives the illusion of clarity, but is actually misleading. It ignores, for example, the important progress students are making year over year.\n\nWe should discard A-F and report both achievement levels AND growth measures. This gives a more complete view of learning.<\/p>\n\n

6. Quit moving the goal posts.<\/b>

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We change testing standards, cut scores, and accountability rules so frequently that schools can’t develop effective long-term improvement strategies, or see how much progress they are making.\n\nWe should keep accountability goals and measures stable for at least 5 years so educators can implement research-based practices and see real results.<\/p>\n\n

7. When schools need help, provide real support \u2013 not just more paperwork.<\/b>

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We respond to struggling schools not with real help, but by requiring more reports, audits, improvement plans and compliance documents.\n\nWe should provide struggling schools with coaching, resources, proven intervention programs, and additional staff and funding\u2014real support that changes outcomes.<\/p>\n\n

8. Consider steady improvement in take-over decisions.<\/b>

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We trigger state takeovers after multiple years of low ratings, even when a school has been showing steady improvement but hasn\u2019t crossed the \u201cpassing\u201d line yet.

\n\nWe should consider clear upward trends and allow schools that are consistently improving to continue their work with added support, reserving takeovers for campuses that are stagnant or declining. <\/p>

\n\nI think these practical upgrades would make a huge difference in supporting our teachers, putting the emphasis back on learning instead of testing, and ultimately helping more of our kids get the foundation they need for learning the rest of their lives. If you agree, I hope you will vote for me, Ashley Bean Thornton, for The Texas House.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The STAAR Test is a Beast. Let’s Tame it. \u00a0 I’m Ashley Bean Thornton, and I am running for the Texas House of Representatives, House District 56.\u00a0 If you like what I have to say, and you live in HD 56, I hope you will vote for me in November 2026.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I hope you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-public-schools","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2727"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2790,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727\/revisions\/2790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}