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TAKS test dates change
Texas shifts dates to allow primary voting on March 4
The Texas Education Agency has moved some dates for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, to free up elementary schools for voting in the Texas primary on March 4.
“By moving testing dates, we can preserve schools as polling places and maintain a calm, quiet, secure testing environment for our students,” said Robert Scott, commissioner of education for the state.
The change in dates will affect about 2.6 million students around the state, and about 6,000 students in Navarro County.
The commissioner decided to change the testing calendar after consulting with many superintendents, testing coordinators and education service center directors, according to the TEA.
The conflict in schedules happened because legislators moved the primary date up a week, while also pushing back the opening day of school and the TAKS testing, compared with last year.
Apparently, when the testing calendar was drafted last summer, nobody protested the coinciding dates until recently. As election day drew closer, however, some school district officials began to worry that the steady influx of voters into their building could be distracting to students taking a high-stakes test, according to a TEA press release.
In Navarro County, half a dozen schools also serve as polling places — Fannin, Travis, Collins Middle School and Lee Academy in Corsicana, as well as Mildred and Frost.
“We were fine here, but up in the Metroplex they were having some problems,” said Danda Parker, voting administrator for Navarro County.
Some school districts considered banning voting from their campuses, to relieve the pressure on students that additional traffic would bring. To avoid that, the state shifted the testing dates around.
“We know this change causes additional work for our district and campus testing coordinators so we have not made this decision lightly. We had to balance the long-standing tradition of using schools as polling places with children’s right to a quiet testing environment as they take high-stakes exams,” Scott said.
Under the new schedule, the tests originally set for March 4 will be pushed back to March 5, which also creates a bit of a domino effect, pushing other tests onto other days.
The biggest change will be moving the exit-level TAKS social studies exam, which had been scheduled for Friday, March 7 back to Monday, March 3.
While state tests are not normally administered on Monday, the exit-level social studies exam affects the fewest number of test takers, about 10,000 students statewide, according to the TEA.
Under the revised schedule, the TAKS tests will be given as follows:
March 3 (Monday): Exit-level social studies
March 4: No tests
March 5: Reading for third, fifth, eighth and ninth grades; writing for fourth and seventh-grades; English Language Arts for tenth and exit-level; and retests for exit-level English and writing.
March 6: Math retests for exit-level.
March 7: Make-up tests for seventh and tenth English; and retests for science and reading exit-level.
March 8 (Saturday): All make-up tests for TAKS exams given on March 5.
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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com
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