Tomorrow’s the big day…TAKS. And we can argue all day long about its merits and its faults. But I know one thing: I tremendously resent having to sign (and sign again and again) oaths which state that I have been trained in administering the TAKS, that I have read my training manual for administering the TAKS, and that I have administered the TAKS in an ethical manner.
Yes, teachers put their certifications (and therefore their livelihoods) on the line for the “privilege” of administering this test. I’ll be administering the TAKS in: (1) a room that is not my own, (2) with students who (more than likely) are not my own, (3) with a test administration partner who is not a member of my department. I am to “actively monitor” students (i.e., no reading, grading, computer use, planning of lessons) without interfering with their ability to concentrate on the task at hand. Windows in the doors cannot be covered (so as to facilitate spying active monitoring) but all bulletin boards, posters, etc., must be covered.
And my school has been told to expect outside monitors from Central Administration and possibly the Ivory Tower Down in Austin TEA. Yes, we can’t be trusted to ethically administer this test despite the fact our campus has not experienced any serious test irregularities for at least the last eleven years (when I first came to our campus).
The Texas Education Agency is currently headed by a man named Robert Scott. According to the TEA website, Scott is a “veteran education policy expert,” a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and a member of the State Bar. (I am the only one who finds it ironic that the head of public education in Texas has never been a teacher?)
I wonder how long it has been since Scott has been required, as a part of his job, to sign oaths saying he will dutifully administer a test outside his field of expertise to students he has probably not taught (assuming he has ever taught students in the first place).
Oh, did I mention that an article in the Dallas Morning News said:
“Mr. Scott’s appointment was sidetracked in June [2007] when an internal investigation by the TEA’s inspector general cited him and other officials for improperly steering state contracts to friends. “
Can someone look up the definition of the word “irony” in the one of the four dictionaries that my eighteen charges are supposed to share tomorrow?
