TEA chief calls test scores encouraging

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The Texas Education Commissioner released scores Tuesday on the new STAAR exams first given last school year.

Passing rates topped 70 percent for grades three through eight.

Click here for detailed passing rates.

Eighth-graders did the best on the reading exam with 80 percent of students passing. Only 68 percent of third- and fourth-graders passed the math test. Social studies was the toughest, with only 59 percent of eighth-graders passing.

Results are also in for high school students who had to retake their end of course exams in the summer and fall after failing the first time. Scores climbed in all subjects.

The most significant change was with ninth-grade writing. Nearly 73 percent of students have now passed the test. Only about 54 percent  passed on the first try.

"Students, teachers and administrators have been working exceptionally hard since the first take of that, but we have a ways to go," said Education Commissioner Michael Williams.

Williams announced the news in front of 5,000 school administrators at an educators conference in Downtown Austin.

Still, Hutto ISD Superintendent Doug Killian is not impressed by the scores.

"They're disappointing, obviously. Every time we make a transition to a new accountability system, that's true," said Killian.

The education commissioner told administrators to give it time.

Another concern is how long it took the Texas Education Agency to release passing rates for grades three through eight: eight months.

Killian says it hardly gives teachers time to target trouble spots before round two of testing begins in April.

"How meaningful can you be when you've got last year's results just now and you've got basically two months until writing and just three months until you're taking all the other tests? It's insanity," said Killian.

The education commissioner blames kinks in the process this first year. A spokesperson for the agency said the turnaround time should be much faster for the 2012-2013 school year.

Results for tests taken in April and May should be out by the end of May.