STAR should be replaced

April 30, 2009

By Patrick Flynn

The state of California should abandon the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program. It is a waste of money and inaccurately measures schools’ academic performances.

First and foremost, the STAR is meant to measure schools’ aptitudes; schools get more funding when they do well on the exams. If a school’s Academic Performance Index (API) is high, it’s rolling in the dough. According to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, in 2001, teachers in eligible schools received bonuses up to twenty-five thousand dollars for having high API scores.

But while schools’ test scores are scrutinized, individual students have nothing to lose. Sure, if Washington does poorly, the local real estate values will diminish and the school suffers. That doesn’t seem to matter to test-takers.

Each year for ten years, I’ve spent hours filling in bubbles on cheap paper. And while I always took my time and did my best on the STAR tests, others would pass the hours by filling in all C’s or making pictures out of the circles they darkened. They had no reason to care; colleges don’t look at individual STAR scores.

California, cut the program. Stop wasting money on a test that few take seriously. Save the money you would’ve otherwise used for the STAR test and apply it toward administering the SAT and ACT to high school students.

Give freshmen, sophomores, and juniors the opportunity to take one of those two tests at the taxpayers’ expense. That way, the people taking the exams would be held personally accountable for their performance. When people are held accountable for their actions, they tend to take things seriously.

Students could use their freshman and sophomore years to practice and see where they need to improve; they could send their results from their junior year to colleges. This would save money and time on students’ behalf.

Average scores to figure out which schools deserve additional money. Do whatever you need to do. Just stop wasting students’ time with STAR tests.

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