PodcastOkay I don't want to sound like a whiny bitch, but I noticed something that the guys talked about. I'm not sure what podcast, but they where talking about standardized testing in Texas. TAKS is the one that we take and I would like to take a minute to make a slight correction. TAKS stands for Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. This test is not started in high school as they stated it is actually started in 3rd grade. Another thing is that it's not an all in one test its actually a series of tests. Every year there is a Math, Reading, and Grammar test. Starting in 4th grade the even years have a Writing test and starting in 5th grade the odd years have a science test up ...

PodcastOkay I don't want to sound like a whiny bitch, but I noticed something that the guys talked about. I'm not sure what podcast, but they where talking about standardized testing in Texas. TAKS is the one that we take and I would like to take a minute to make a slight correction. TAKS stands for Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. This test is not started in high school as they stated it is actually started in 3rd grade. Another thing is that it's not an all in one test its actually a series of tests. Every year there is a Math, Reading, and Grammar test. Starting in 4th grade the even years have a Writing test and starting in 5th grade the odd years have a science test up until high school. Years 6,7, and 8 all have a history test in addition to the math, reading, grammar and the writing/science test. In high school there is a Math, Reading, Grammar, History,Science, and writing every grade and also the nation wide ACT,SAT,etc. This year however (bare with me I know this is long) things are changing. Instead of taking the TAKS this year we are taking the STAAR, don't ask me what it stands for they haven't told us yet, which is supposed to be harder. Even though a number of schools do not pass the TAKS the state has decided to change to the STAAR because they believe that it will challenge the majority of the state. It is also believed to encourage the schools that are failing the TAKS to work harder (both the students and the faculty) to achieve that passing grade. So thats it just wanted to say that so the proper knowledge could come out. Sorry this is long.