Emails, Zac Petkanas, communications director, Wendy Davis campaign, April 28-30, 2014
3:57 p.m.
April 28, 2014
"The $118 million Abbott plan calls for lawmakers to require school districts with preK programs to administer assessments at the beginning and end of the school year in an effort to measure the quality of such programs. One of those assessments referenced in Abbott's plan is standardized testing." --Corpus Christi Caller-Times
"One of the candidates' biggest slug-fests over Pre-K has focused on Abbott's call for assessing what these four-year olds have learned and how that would be done. A paragraph in Abbott's 22- page plan says standardized testing is one way of doing that." -- KERA
"Abbott also proposes that school districts meet a "gold standard" as an incentive for funding. That involves measurement, which is another way of saying testing" - Corpus Christi Caller-Times
"That would include testing and other measurements to ensure that instruction in those classes is effective." --Dallas Morning News
"Sabo also cautioned against placing too much emphasis on testing for such young children.' The last thing Texas needs is Baby STAAR.'"-- Austin American Statesman
"Districts being funded by the state would also be required to test each pre-K student for benchmarks." - Texas Public Radio
"Abbott's plan would grant an additional $1500 per pre-k student in districts that agree to meet new "gold" standards, a determination that would be made through testing and other assessments." - KUT
And from page 21 of Abbott's education plan:
In order to equip the Commissioner of Education with the data necessary to properly evaluate prekindergarten programs, lawmakers should amend the Education Code to require school districts with prekindergarten programs to administer assessments at the beginning and end of the school year.
There are at least three methods of assessing students at the prekindergarten level:
● Direct Assessments, norm referenced standardized tests: A typical question on a direct assessment
might ask the child to identify the letter and provide three options. The child receives credit for
correctly identifying the letter. Direct assessments are in some views deficient because they do not
capture the full spectrum of the students skill set and cannot truly be used to determine quality of the program.
● Observation Checklists and Scales: Assessment under this method requires that teachers informally watch students within the daily routine and observe their mastery. This option does provide a more complete capture of the student’s progress but is contingent on teachers being well-trained in the method. Such assessments are also labor intensive.
● Child’s Work (Portfolio): Assessing children’s work acts as a complement to a teachers observed progress. This method does not capture the entire picture of a student’s progress and tends to be labor intensive for teachers.
On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 6:15 PM, Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) <wgselby@statesman.com> wrote:
Following up: It looks to me like Abbott wants such youngsters assessed at the start and end of each school year and his proposal says a way of doing that would entail standardized tests. But the plan lists two alternate assessment methods; it also doesn’t say any method should be mandated.
Anything else we should focus on?
...
g.
8:46 a.m.
April 30, 2014
Well, it does, in fact, discuss assessments like norm referenced standardized tests being "required" and it talks about not "giving one testing organization a monopoly over prekindergarten evaluations". So, the idea that Abbott's pre-kindergarten plan is not based on standardized testing is just absurd.
--
Zac Petkanas
On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 9:02 AM, Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) <wgselby@statesman.com> wrote:
There’s nothing there that says the assessments have to be standardized tests—or did I miss something else?
10:42 a.m.
He mandates assessments and ties funding to their outcomes -- and then points to norm referenced standardized tests as the first way to do that -- and talks about not giving any testing organization a monopoly (they do standardized tests). I'm not sure how much clearer he could be.