Texas State Government getting money out of our testing? (Debate Purpose)

[Roxsy3392]

People! I need some seriouse help here. I have a debate on Tuesday (04-26-05) and I just found out of a really good topic that I wasn't aware of. Texas State, is actually making a profit out of our "Texas Academic and Knowledge Skills" (TAKS) test. This is really wrong of them, but in the other hand, they might use the funds for educational purpose. I've tried looking it up on the net and was unsuccessful. I still don't see how they might make a profit out of our testings, but if you're a government person, or a person that knows a lot of these sort of stuff... PLEASE!!! Let me know.

[jwenting]

All exam fees paid to state operated schools go to the state. Same with (part of) exam fees for state run exams.
Nothing wrong with that, it costs them money to organise and run the exam after all...

Most likely they LOOSE money on it and the exam fees don't cover the full expenses.

[zeroth]

J, what she´s referring to is the rather insidious practice in the US of using the state testing scores to garner money from the federal government. The feds make their decisions on amounts based on the overall improvement of the testing scores under the guidelines of the No Child Left Behind programs.

This causes many problems and competitions in the school systems here and, since each state does it differently, there are some unusual consequences. For an example, my children were born in Spain and I just moved them here last year, so they are having to beef up their English considerably. When the school they are in gives the PACT tests, they are exempted from the English part. Why? Because their participation would reflect poorly on the overall test scores, which are the determining factor in how much money the school gets from the feds.

Oh, it´s all covered in the rules of the ESL (English as secon language) program, but is it a good practice? Does all of this encourage less than honest activities in the school districts?

It works like that in many facets of the state/federal government relationship. Highway construction and maintenance programs depend on certain rules to get federal assistance. In California, you will find most expressways have carpool lanes that are almost unused. The three or four inside lanes will be bumper to bumper (in local lingo, parking lots) while the carpool lane has a few cars speeding past, a real hazard. This occurs because they get more money from the feds if they have carpool lanes, not because there is a real need for them.

Just thought I would clarify...

[jwenting]

Ah. No different from many other countries.

Here schools get paid by the number of students, and parents of course prefer schools where the students do well.
So schools will often advise students to choose a high level of followup education even if they should really attempt something lower just to shore up their own statistics.

As a result a relatively high percentage of students at higher education gets set back to lower levels after the first or second year because they can't keep up.