Education Policy Analysis Archives

Volume 8 Number 41

The Texas Miracle in Education

Walt Haney

2. Recent History of Testing in Texas

          Texas has seen several waves of education reform over the last several decades. As with reform efforts in many other states, testing has featured prominently in these efforts.
          In 1971, in the case of Rodriquez v. San Antonio Independent School District, a federal court ruled the system of financing public schools in Texas to be unconstitutional in that it discriminated against students living in poor school districts. Although the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision in the Rodriquez case in 1973, the case helped spur the Texas legislature into trying to remedy inequities in school finance (Funkhouser, 1990, p. 6). In 1979, the Texas legislature passed the Equal Educational Opportunity Act, which established the first state mandated testing program (Office of Technology Assessment, 1987, p. 271). This was the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS), a survey-type assessment, without sanctions for test takers, from 1980 to 1985.
          Following recommendations of a Select Committee on Education (chaired by H. Ross Perot), in 1984 the Texas legislature passed a comprehensive education reform law mandating the most sweeping changes in education in Texas in 30 years (Funkhouser, 1990, p. 3). Among other things, the law established a statewide curriculum (called the Essential Elements), required students to achieve a score of 70 to pass their high school courses, mandated the "no pass, no play" rule (whereby students could not participate in varsity sports if they did not pass high school courses), required teachers to pass a proficiency test; and mandated changes in the statewide testing program (Funkhouser, 1990). Commenting on the state of education in Texas in the mid-1980s, Harold Hodgkinson observed that "The current Texas school reform is as 'top down' as can be found in the U.S. The costs of operating the system now enacted into law will be severe and the retention rate to high school graduation will likely decrease" (Hodgkinson, 1986).
          The 1984 law mandated basic skills testing of students in each odd numbered grade (Funkhouser, 1990, p. 199). The new testing program, called the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills or TEAMS, was implemented in 1985 and tested students in grades 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. Under the 1984 law, high school students were required to pass the "exit level" version of TEAMS in order to receive a high school diploma, based on a passing score set by the State Board of Education (Office of Technology Assessment, 1987, pp. 272-75). The TEAMS exit-level tests were given for the first time in October 1985 to approximately 190,000 eleventh graders. Eighty-eight percent of students passed the math portion of TEAMS; 91 percent passed the English language arts portion; and 85 percent passed both. Students who failed either portion of TEAMS had an opportunity to retake the tests in May 1986. The majority of students, who had failed in the fall, passed the spring retest (Funkhouser, 1990, pp. 199-201).
          In Fall 1990, changes in state law required the implementation of a new "criterion-referenced" testing program, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and also established end-of-course tests for selected high school course subjects. As compared with TEAMS, TAAS was intended to shift the focus of assessment from "minimum skills to academic skills" and to test "higher-order thinking skills and problem solving ability." (TEA, 1997, p. 1). The TAAS is developed for Texas by National Computer Systems, which subcontracts for portions of work to Harcourt Brace Educational Measurement (for item development) and Measurement Incorporated (for scoring of the open-ended portions of the TAAS). TAAS was administered to students in grades 3, 5, 7, and 11 in Fall of 1990 and 1991.
          Results of the fall 1990 tryout of TAAS showed that the new tests were much more difficult than the TEAMS tests had been. Table 2.1 shows results from the Fall 1990 grade 11 field test of TAAS. These results made clear that if the passing score on TEAMS (70% correct) was maintained for TAAS, passing rates would fall from the 80-90% range seen on TEAMS to the 40-60% range on TAAS (with pass rates for Black and Hispanic students on the math portion of TAAS falling to the 27-33% range).

Table 2.1
Possible Passing Scores Based on
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) Field Test Results Exit (11) (1990)

Mathematics (Total possible score is 60 items correct)
   
Projected Percent Passing
Number of items Percent of Items Black Hispanic White Total
36 60% 43% 50% 68% 59%
42 70% 27% 33% 50% 42%
Reading (Total possible score is 48 items correct)
   
Projected Percent Passing
Number of items Percent of Items Black Hispanic White Total
29 60% 68% 68% 84% 77%
34 71% 45% 46% 71% 60%
Writing (Total possible score is 40 items correct)
    Projected Percent Passing
Number of items Percent of Items Black Hispanic White Total
24 60% 50% 70% 77% 69%
28 70% 38% 55% 64% 56%
(Data presented to the Texas Board of Education, July 1990. Reproduced from TEA, 1997, appendix 9 of Texas Student Assessment Program Technical Digest for the Academic Year 1996-1997, p. 347.)  

          The 1992-93 school year was a time of transition for statewide testing in Texas with some grades being tested in the fall and some in the spring. In the Spring of 1994, the TAAS reading and mathematics assessments were administered to students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10; and the TAAS writing tests were administered at Grades 4, 8, and 10. If students do not pass the grade 10 or exit level TAAS, they may continue taking portions they have not yet passed during grades 11 and 12. Since 1994, the TAAS Reading, Mathematics and Writing tests have consistently been administered to students in grades 4, 8 and 10 in the spring of each year.
          In addition to being used to help ensure student learning, TAAS results are also used to hold schools and school systems "accountable" for student learning. By state law, the State Board of Education is mandated to rate the performance of schools and school districts according to a set of "academic excellence indicators," including TAAS results, dropout rates and student attendance rates (TEA, 1997, p. 159). State law also prescribes that student performance data be disaggregated by ethnicity and socioeconomic status. The performance rating system holds that school performance is not acceptable if the performance of all subgroups is not acceptable. Based primarily on percentage of students passing each of the TAAS tests, the more than 6,000 schools in Texas have been rated since 1994 as "exemplary," "recognized," "acceptable" or "unacceptable."
TAAS passing standards [for schools' performance ratings] . . . are based on the passing rates for all students and the disaggregated rates for four student groups: African American, Hispanic, White, and Economically Disadvantaged. Of the four categories, only the exemplary rating has had a consistent passing standard, requiring at least 90 percent of all students and each student group to pass each subject area. The recognized rating has increased from at least 65 percent of students passing in 1994 to a current 70 percent, the acceptable rating has gone from at least 25 percent passing to 30 percent, and the low-performing rating from less than 25 percent to less than 30 percent. (Gordon & Reese, 1997, p. 347-480)
          Schools are eligible for cash awards for high ratings; and if they are rated as low performing twice in a row, they are subject to sanctions from the Texas Education Agency, including possible closure.
          In short, over the past decade TAAS has become an extremely high stakes test for students, educators and schools in the state of Texas. If students do not pass all three portions of the exit level version of TAAS (reading, math and writing), they cannot graduate from high school, regardless of grades in their high school courses. And schools' reputations, funding and their continued existence depend on students' performance on TAAS. (Note 3)
          Before summarizing TAAS results in the 1990s, it is useful to describe the tests themselves. The focus of test-based accountability in Texas is on the TAAS tests of reading, mathematics and writing (there are also TAAS tests of social studies and science and end-of course tests in some high school subjects). The TAAS tests are mostly multiple-choice in format. The numbers of questions on the TAAS tests varies somewhat across grade level versions, but the grade 10 (or exit level) versions contain 48 reading questions, 60 math questions and 40 writing questions. The TAAS writing test also includes an open-ended question to which students must write their answers. The written composition portion of the TAAS writing test is scored on a 4-point scale (released versions of the TAAS tests are available at www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/release.htm).
          Finally, I should mention that though several observers have described the TAAS tests as criterion-referenced, traditional norm-referenced test construction techniques (such as screening of candidate items in terms of item discrimination) have been used in their construction. Also it is clear that the TAAS tests have so few items that they cannot be used to yield reliable scores below the aggregate reading, math and writing levels—and as we will see, there is ample cause to doubt their reliability and validity even at these aggregate levels. Moreover, as will be explained, the passing scores on the TAAS test were set without any reference to performance criteria external to TAAS, but only after review of group performance on TAAS—in effect a norm-referenced rather than criterion-referenced comparison.
          As mentioned, by law the Texas State Board of Education was required to set passing scores on the TAAS tests (or as legislative language put it, "determine the level of performance considered to be satisfactory," TEA, 1997, p. 157). Here is how the Texas Student Assessment Program Technical Digest describes the evolution of the TAAS "passing standard":
In 1990 the State Board of Education set minimum expectations as equivalent to 70% of the multiple-choice items correct on the fall 1990 test and a score of at least 2 on the written composition. The 70%-equivalent standard was in effect beginning with the 1991-1992 school year. The 1990-1991 school year served as a transition from the previous assessment program, The Texas Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS). The SBOE set the interim minimum expectations standard at 65% of the multiple-choice items correct for Grades 3, 3-Spanish, and 5, and 60% of the items correct for grades 7, 9 and exit level. A student also had to score at least 2 on the written composition to meet minimum expectations on the writing test. (TEA, 1997, p. 28)
          So, since 1992 the passing scores on the TAAS exit level tests (reading, writing and math) have been set at a level equivalent to the 70% of items correct on Fall 1990 form of the tests. As new forms of the tests were used in subsequent years, analysts used test-equating methods to try to make passing scores on the new forms equivalent to 70% correct on the 1990 forms. (Note 4)

0: Home   |   1: Intro.   |   2: History   |   3: The Myth   |   4: TAAS   |   5: Missing Students
6: Teachers   |   7: Other Evidence   |   8: Summary   |   Notes & Ref.   |   Appendix