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Features » February 11, 2004

Texas Testing Massacre

By Bill Ayers

Candidate Bush trumpeted the academic progress of students under a reform regime built on a single standardized test, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Not only were test-scores leaping upward but the “achievement gap” between students of color and their white counterparts was disappearing. This remarkable accomplishment was dubbed the “Texas Miracle,” not merely an important piece of Bush’s electoral strategy, but the phenomenon that catapulted Rod Paige, Houston’s school superintendent, to the Bush cabinet as Secretary of Education.

But like so many of Bush’s claims, the “Texas Miracle” turned out to be both extravagant and false. In June 2003 the Texas Education Agency discovered a pattern of rampant undercounting of dropouts, dramatic overestimations of college-bound graduates and falsified reports concerning crimes in schools. Test scores were inflated, successes wildly exaggerated, failure swept into the broom closet.

This is worth noting now because in his State of the Union message, President Bush vowed to stay the course: “We are regularly testing every child on the fundamentals,” he exulted, highlighting the centerpiece of his signature education law: the No Child Left Behind Act. He deemed his critics timid defenders of the status quo who favor “weakening standards and accountability” and announced that “the days of simply shuffling children along from grade to grade without them learning the basics” are over.

The tragedy is that the Bush policy distracts from a more hopeful path to genuine school improvement. If we are committed to free high-quality public schooling available to all we should campaign for a comprehensive program of change. Equity cannot be the goal. Equity must be the starting point.

It is no mystery why a high school in the suburbs that can raise $15,000 per child on its tax base, and spends even more, does better than a high school on the South Side of Chicago that can raise only $7,000 per child. The inequitable distribution of educational resources is a dagger at the heart of schooling in a democracy.

We don’t need any more threats or punishments; we need support for teachers, families, students and communities in their efforts to set and meet high standards. With its high-stakes testing, No Child Left Behind functions more as an autopsy than a diagnostic.

Bill Ayers is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of Fugitive Days (Beacon) and co-author, with Bernardine Dohrn, of Race Course: Against White Supremacy (Third World Press).

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  • Reader Comments

    Can you provide specific statistics?

    Does accountability exist any more, whether in local, state, federal government and/or private industry?  To whom would you recommend that your child look to as a role model?

    Posted by Lori Ross on Feb 13, 2004 at 8:17 PM

    I took the TAAS test back in 10th grade (I was in private school before so I took only the “exit TAAS” you take tenth grade). You have to take it to graduate and it is mind numbingly easy. If the TAAS test is some sort of miracle example no wonder our educational system is so screwed up. Also, they threw the taas out the window last year and replaced it with the TAKS test which is supposed to be improved but i highly doubt that is so. 

    Posted by Lana on Feb 14, 2004 at 10:01 PM

    As a teacher I’m saddened by the continual blows to student and teacher morale that is present all over the world. Bill Ayers is absolutely right… teachers don’t need more threats. WE NEED SUPPORT. The work we do is mentally and often emotionally challenging, especially when teaching self-destructive youth between the ages of 13 and 17 years. Enough MacEducation! It’s time the world’s governments realised that if we want a better world, we need to invest in the life-time education and NURTURING of our citizens, and our planet! 
    BY THE WAY - I adore the picture of Bush as Pinocchio - how can I order a copy?

    Posted by Maria Carras-Kerr on Feb 17, 2004 at 6:32 AM

    As a teacher I’m saddened by the continual blows to student and teacher morale that is present all over the world. Bill Ayers is absolutely right… teachers don’t need more threats. WE NEED SUPPORT. The work we do is mentally and often emotionally challenging, especially when teaching self-destructive youth between the ages of 13 and 17 years. Enough MacEducation! It’s time the world’s governments realised that if we want a better world, we need to invest in the life-time education and NURTURING of our citizens, and our planet! 
    BY THE WAY - I adore the picture of Bush as Pinocchio - how can I order a copy?

    Posted by Maria Carras-Kerr on Feb 17, 2004 at 6:32 AM

    The testing is amazing to me, mostly because the education system here has been, in some ways, very similar, and I think that the introduction of the very strict testing requirements, is, as implied, a step backwards.  Here each high school has a seperate entrance test and the tests the students take determine what area the students will study for pretty much the rest of their lives, failure indicating, in many instances, failure for the rest of the student’s life.  My wife teaches at the wide end of the funnel and most students realize that unless they are in the top international class, the schooling does not really matter.  My wife’s school has about a quarter drop out rate after the first year.  Our friend that teaches at the Arts Design high school in the area says he suffers a third drop out within the first year and a total drop out rate of one half.  The students realize the tests for what they are, a labeling system, failure indicates that they are forever doomed to it.  The teachers also resign themselves to the tests.  Why bother teaching students that will fail anyway?  It is sad to see America fall backwards on their education system…

    Posted by T K on Feb 18, 2004 at 1:12 AM

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