Hinojosa Letter To Governor

July 6, 2020
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
The Honorable Greg Abbott

Office of the Governor of Texas
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
RE: Request to Reconsider STAAR Testing for 2020-2021 School Year and to Join Other
States in Requesting a Federal Waiver from STAAR Testing
Dear Governor Abbott:
As the number of COVID-19 infections surge in Texas, I write to urge you to reconsider your plan to
proceed with STAAR testing for children in the 2020-2021 academic year. As Texas children are coping
with the emotional stressors brought on by the pandemic, the State should refrain from imposing the
additional pressure of a high-stakes, multi-hour, standardized test on students. Texas should join other
states in requesting a waiver from requirements for standardized testing for the 2020-2021 school year
from the U.S. Department of Education. Additionally, Texas children would be better served by
redirecting the tens of millions of dollars spent on the STAAR test to investments in pressing, pandemic-
time necessities like the expansion of broadband access to Texas families to facilitate equitable distance
learning, and supports for school districts struggling to provide a quality education to students receiving
special education. Because the STAAR test is not “diagnostic,” but rather ranks schools and students on
content they should have learned under normal circumstances, forced administration of this test is not
appropriate. We already know that students, through no fault of their own, have fallen behind. We
should, instead, prioritize investments in educational supports to keep school children engaged and
learning.
STAAR will compound emotional stress for children during the pandemic.
The anxiety and emotional stress that children experience because of high-stakes, standardized tests
have been well-documented. While the appropriateness of requiring children to endure the emotional
1
strain of a high-stakes test for purposes of “accountability” should be reevaluated during normal times,
during a pandemic we have a greater responsibility to ensure that the State is not compounding the

1
Segool, Natasha K. et. al.. Heightened Test Anxiety among Young Children: Elementary School Students’ Anxious
Responses to High-Stakes Testing. Psychology in the Schools, May 2013.
Saeki, E. et. al.. Potential psychosocial and instructional consequences of the common core state standards: Implications for
research and practice. Contemporary School Psychology, 2015.
Strauss, V. How anxious are kids about taking standardized tests? This anxious. The Washington Post, April 23, 2014.
Talbot, Lauren. Test anxiety: Prevalence, effects, and interventions for elementary school students. James Madison
Undergraduate Research Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1, 2015-2016.
anxiety our school children experience. The progression of the pandemic has presented a worrisome
accumulation of risk factors for mental health problems in children and adolescents: acute stress, fear of
death of relatives, re-organization of family life and structure, economic crisis with loss of support
systems, limited access to physical and mental health services, and a lack of social stabilization and
control. The State has a responsibility to support parents, families, and communities trying to protect
2
kids from the emotional harm ravaged by the pandemic; let us not add an unnecessary worry to the
pressures kids, families, and schools must already endure.
Texas should join other states and request a federal waiver from testing.
While I acknowledge that most STAAR testing is legally mandated by the federal government, Texas
should join other states advocating for families and school children by requesting a waiver from this
requirement for the 2020-2021 school year from the U.S. Department of Education. There is a high
probability that such a request from Texas would be approved given that this same request was approved
when Texas asked for it in the 2019-2020 school year because of the pandemic. Today, with COVID-19
hospitalizations increasing exponentially, well above what they were when this waiver was approved in
the Spring, and with a consensus amongst epidemiologists that the virus will disrupt our daily lives for at
least another year, Texas has a strong case to make for a waiver from standardized testing for the 2020-
2021 school year.
STAAR testing is not a priority under current pandemic circumstances and resources should be
redirected to more pressing needs for students.
Government must always re-evaluate priorities and needs to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent
to attain the highest value for citizens. Now with additional pressures on both our state budget and on
family finances because of the pandemic, Texas has a heightened responsibility to ensure that taxpayer
dollars are dedicated to their highest use. Spending tens of millions of dollars on a test designed for
accountability purposes should not be the State’s current priority. The STAAR test ranks students,
schools, and districts against one another. The STAAR test is not a “diagnostic” test that would give
teachers useful information to address gaps in a child’s knowledge. Teachers and schools already have
these necessary, diagnostic tools to assist in targeted curriculum planning and pedagogy. Given that the
STAAR is administered at the end of the school year and results are not made available until most, if not
all, of the school year is over, the STAAR test does not give teachers the real-time information they need
to ensure that students are mastering content. The State should shift this massive financial expenditure
away from the STAAR test, and instead invest in tools that keep students engaged and learning in this
new, challenging educational environment necessitated by the pandemic.
In response to the pandemic schools are utilizing “distance learning” strategies that are heavily reliant on
internet access to most effectively teach students while keeping them and teachers safe from the virus.
Yet, not all Texas families have access to the internet to engage in virtual learning. This reality widens
the education gap and magnifies inequity within our public schools. The Federal Communications
Commission estimates that more than two million Texas households do not have high-speed internet
access. However, it is important to note that research from the Microsoft Corporation finds that the
number of Texans who do not use the internet at broadband-level speed is actually 14.6 million Texans –
more than half the population of Texas. Texas can and must eliminate this major obstacle to education
3
access by expanding broadband access to all Texas families.

2
Fegert, Jorg. Challenges and burden of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for child and adolescent mental
health: a narrative review to highlight clinical and research needs in the acute phase and the long return to normality. Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, May 12, 2020.
3
Microsoft Airband: An Update on Connecting Rural America. https://news.microsoft.com/rural-broadband/
For these reasons, the State should reconsider finalizing the contract for STAAR testing for the 2020-
2021 school year, and instead reserve the tens of millions of dollars that would otherwise be spent on
STAAR testing to potentially use for broadband expansion for Texas families and essential support for
children receiving special education services. If our true goal in public education is to leave “no child
behind,” Texas should, at minimum, make investments to broaden access to educational opportunities
for children who have an elevated risk of falling behind during this pandemic; namely, children who do
not have internet access and children with greater educational challenges due to learning disabilities.
Finally, the most valuable resource we have in our classroom is teaching and learning time. The reality
is that STAAR preparation and testing consumes a significant amount of this time. This valuable time is
more precious than ever with teachers inventing and attempting novel strategies to keep students
engaged and learning, and it should be prioritized to achieve that end rather than diverted for
accountability purposes.
Governor Abbott, I know that in these highly partisan times, many of us are skeptical and cynical
regarding policy positions taken by members of the opposing political party. My experience has been
that one of the few policy areas for which Democrats and Republicans have been able to still build
coalitions and find common ground is “public education.” I appeal to you in this spirit of putting aside
our political differences to find a solution that is in the best interest of Texas school children. These are
very difficult times for all Texans; my hope is that we can come together to do everything in our power
to protect and nurture our youngest Texans as we endeavor to prevail against the most daunting threat of
our generation.
Respectfully,
Gina Hinojosa
State Representative, District 49
CC: Mike Morath, Commissioner, Texas Education Agency

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July 6, 2020

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

The Honorable Greg Abbott

Dear Governor Abbott:

access by expanding broadband access to all Texas families.

CC: Mike Morath, Commissioner, Texas Education Agency

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