Testing wars
A series of letters between opponents and supporters of the state's accountability system is bringing into focus the problems of overtesting in Texas, and has raised the possibility that the "15% requirement" could be waived.
In an apparent attempt to quell the escalating war of words between school superintendents and certain factions of the Texas business community about the role of standardized testing in our state, several key lawmakers, including Senate Education Committee Chair Florence Shapiro, wrote a letter 
authorizing the commissioner of education to waive the requirement that this year’s 9th graders must count their end-of-course exam results as 15% of their final course grade. Although much has been made of the 15% requirement, the larger issue about the undue influence standardized testing has in our state education system is very much in play.
In a recent speech to school administrators, Commissioner Robert Scott acknowledged the issue, calling the testing/accountability system a "perversion of its original intent," and stating “I think testing's important, but you've reached a point now where you've created this one thing that the entire system is dependent on." This sparked a firestorm of media coverage and led to a response by a prominent business group, the Texas Association of Business, calling the commissioner “a "cheerleader for mediocrity.”
Since then, the situation has continued to escalate, with a consortium of North Texas superintendents issuing a letter stating that “Standardized, high stakes testing is strangling our public schools and undermining any chance that educators have to transform a traditional system of schooling into an educational opportunity that prepares our students to be competitive on a global stage.”
The Texas Association of Business fired back , claiming that “If these local administrators would cut out all their own time-consuming 'benchmark' testing and practice and drill testing that drive parents and teachers crazy, we'd be left with very little, but highly valuable, testing at the end of the year.”
TCTA, for our part, in recent testimony 
reminded legislators that, despite much attention being focused on smaller issues such as logistical problems with the law’s requirement that end-of-course (EOC) grades count for 15% of students’ final course grades, they should not lose sight of the larger and more important issue – the undue influence that our state assessment system has on the education of Texas students. TCTA suggested that lawmakers look at ways to lessen the impact of standardized testing, such as scaling back the number of tests students are required to take to at least the minimum required by federal law. We also pointed out that when comparing ourselves to high performing countries across the globe, we should take note that top performers like Finland deliberately avoid standardized testing in their education system, and credit that decision as a factor in why Finnish students perform so well on international benchmark tests.
With interim legislative committees reviewing the issue, and the departure from office of Senator Shapiro, who was key in defeating attempts last session to delay moving forward with the new state testing system, it seems very likely that attempts to lessen the impact of the new testing system will be renewed next session.
