An official briefing recently on the new regimen of testing for public school students, the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), provided a glimpse of some of the issues associated with the new plan, which kicks in soon. It's complicated, and there will be headaches.

One point of contention for college faculty concerning the present TAKS and TEKS approach, is a gap between the skills needed to graduate from high school and those signifying college readiness. It's unclear at this point if the new system will eventually mean you can expect a higher level of student achievement and ability in your classes. If this could transpire, it would likely make a big difference in the "success rates" of community colleges. Full implementation will take many years, of course, while policy makers are demanding improvement now.

The whole "teaching to the test" controversy is another area to watch carefully. A hallmark of the STAAR is end-of-course examinations rather than one big test.

A point of amusement and candor: One former state representative attending the briefing has a ninth grade daughter who will take the end-of-course exams this year. He had to be reminded that he voted for the bill creating the new system. Here's a key passage from a recent article in the Texas Tribune by KUT's Ben Philpott:

Former state Rep. Jim Dunnam has one of those ninth graders at home. He came to the committee hearing because his daughter received a first-semester report card with no GPA and no semester grades for some of her classes.

“When I got it, I sort of scratched my head and didn’t think too much of it,” Dunnam said. “And then ultimately somebody reminded me that I voted for House Bill 3. That made 15 percent of her GPA dependent on a test she’s going to take in May, that the school will score sometime in June. And then we’ll find out what she made last semester, next fall."

He said the test will not affect students’ GPAs until lawmakers think the system is ready to face the state’s accountability system. STAAR will not count towards schools’ or school districts’ state rankings until 2013.

But that was just one issue.

Here's the official link on the new plan from TEA.