by Nicole Bradford
Regular testing of public school students doesn’t just help prepare them for the state’s STAAR test but provides insight into areas where more focus should be given, Pearland ISD officials say.
The school district recently administered a 9-week benchmark test to students and presented results to the school board. These benchmarks are given throughout the year to measure progress, PISD Superintendent Larry Berger told the board.
“We don’t just autopsy when the STAAR scores come out,” he said. “And where we see issues or concerns, we make adjustments with teachers or send support.”
If the same problem on the math test is below scoring last year across numerous campuses, for example, “that’s a curriculum problem,” he said, compared with localized problems.
“It’s not a matter of finding blame, it’s finding systematic, strategic points that we can make adjustments based on the data,” Berger said.
The tests covered math, reading, language arts, social studies, and science. Color-coded results presented to the board compared the performance of each grade level after the same period one year earlier.
One trustee noted that last year’s lower-than-usual third-grade results in reading and language arts had translated to similar results in this year’s fourth graders — the same students who were entering kindergarten during the pandemic.
“We don’t want to blame it on COVID, but it is a factor that did impact those students,” Berger said.
