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VOLUME 55, NUMBER 128
T HE V OICE OF S EGUIN T ODAY
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Seguin ISD Superintendent wants state to hold off on STAAR Dr. Gutierrez asks community to contact state officials to voice their concerns By Darren Dunn and Cindy AguirreHerrera
leaders to let them know that STAAR is too big a burden this time around, given the starting point for students next year. He says it's just not where we should be focusing our time and energy when you look at the unique circumstances created by the global pandemic. That's why he's reaching out to the community for help.
(Seguin) -- Seguin ISD Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez isn't happy with a couple of recent decisions made at the state level that could potentially have a negative impact on students all over the state. The Texas Education Agency recently announced that it had made the decision to conduct STAAR testing during the 2020-21 school year. Dr. Gutierrez says the "firm" decision was made without the TEA yet providing any clear decisions about how schools will be reopened in the fall. Dr. Gutierrez wrote an open letter to the public last week to voice his displeasure with this decision. He says it's not fair that these students, who already struggled getting through school during the start of the pandemic this past school year, but they are also likely to face more pandemic related challenges next year. Dr. Gutierrez says he hopes that the public understands that this would be an unneccesary burden placed on students and teachers next year. "Just as I find that news concerning and not in the best interest of our staff and students, I belive that our community would feel the same way. To come in and judge a student in the middle of a pandemic, just does not seem like the right thing to do. It's already, I believe in a district that serves 70 percent students on free and reduced lunch, there is a strong correlation between academic performance on that test and economically disadvantaged students. The majority of schools that perform at the F, C and D levels, are schools that serve high percentages of students from poverty," said Gutierrez.
Most students spent a large portion of the last spring semester learning from home. The Seguin ISD made sure that every family had access to at least one electronic device, but it was still a challenge making sure that students continued to learn and grow, while working from home. Dr. Gutierrez says those challenges made for a difficult end to the last school year. He says it was an ending that will very likely have a negative impact on how things get started during the new school year in the fall. Here in the Seguin area, it wasn't just a struggle to get devices into the hands of students, but there are also several more rural areas where internet services were not always available, creating yet another problem for students.
"There are huge disparities that exist when it comes to access to techonology and internet connectivity. So when students are required to learn from home, that presents a challenge. It's already a challenge to learn remotely when you are not getting the face-to-face learning that you receive from your teachers, but as well as that support for the whole child. There's a socialemotional piece that you need to factor in as well, that comes from those who serve you at the school -- teachers, counselors (and) administrators. And all of those interactions are gone," said Gutierrez. Dr. Gutierrez says it's important that parents and other stakeholders start reaching out to state
Cathy Brown 830-302-0968
"People are asking 'what can I do?' Well, I think now is the time for people to come together and begin to reach out to our policy makers -- our state representatives (and) our state senators. The new legislative session is about to kick off in 2021. I think it would be absolutely appropriate to begin articulating why we feel that we should not place so much emphasis on that, because there are going to be significant learning gaps that exist -- more significant than ever before. There's going to be a lot of work that's going to have to take place. It's my hope that at one point this school year, kids are all going to come back into our classrooms. But they are going to be at completely different levels. To assess and grade schools based on the performance in the spring, I believe is going to be completely flawed," said Gutierrez. It's not just STAAR test itself that has Dr. Gutierrez upset. He says the testing comes at a huge cost, and that represents money that could be put to better use by the districts across the state. He says there is federal stimulus package money coming to districts in Texas, but as much of that money comes into the front doors of Texas schools, it's being siphoned out the backdoor by the state. Gutierrez says it's not right, and it's not fair to students in Texas. See STAAR TEST, page 2