ATTN: Texas teams planning on attending the Championship!

[Adrienne E.]

As most Texas teams are aware the World Championship in St. Louis conflicts with the dates of the state TAKS testing. In previous years TEA has granted teams an exemption that allowed certified teachers to administer the test at competition. I went through all the paperwork and red tape to get this approved for 148 this year and TEA said NO! They will not allow us to test out of state. As you can imagine I was pretty angry about this and decided to look into the issue more. After weeks of phone calls, emails, exemption requests, I am in the same place I started in, which is all the 10th and 11th graders on our team can't come to St. Louis until late Friday night.
To me this is unacceptable. Texas just put $5 million into creating robots teams in the state and now half our team can't go to a world competition. I have decided to take the issue farther then TEA, and am contacting our state representatives (Gov. Perry specifically) to try and resolve this issue. Below is a portion of the letter I have submitted to him:


Hello. I am the sponsor of Robotics Team 148 from Greenville TX. As the 2008 FIRST Robotics World Champions, we were invited to stand with Gov. Perry when he announced the Robotics Initiative at Conrad High School in the Fall of 2009. We also were pleased to welcome him to our Dallas Regional Robotics Competition this last March, where he gave the keynote address. During both visits he emphasized "the importance of preparing young Texans to work in an increasingly competitive global economy by promoting programs that integrate science, technology, engineering and math into Texas classrooms."
We were also very pleased when he asked us to bring the FIRST Robotics World Championship title back to Texas. That continues to be our goal. However, we recently received a decision from TEA that is devastating to every Texas Robotics team. The World Championship is scheduled in St. Louis, Missouri, at the same time as the state TAKS testing. Robotics teams have dealt with this in past years by taking certified teachers to administer the test at the appropriate time. Unfortunately TEA has denied our request to test out of state this year. This not only affects Team 148, but every team from Texas that might advance to the World Competition.
Our team currently consists of 5 freshman, 13 sophomores and juniors, and 5 seniors. Each and every one of these students is crucial to the 4 day competition. To win a world championship requires intense focus from each team member for 12-13 hours of each day. While this sounds extreme, it is what is required to succeed in a field of 2,500 teams from 12 countries. With over half of our team unable to attend because of TAKS testing, we will be at a serious disadvantage. This is akin to sending 6 men on the field for a football game. While this is heartbreaking to our students, it is also a poor reflection on Texas’ support of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
It is our hope that Gov. Perry will intervene in this unfortunate TEA situation. Currently there are 145 Robotics teams in Texas. Our team and team 118 out of Houston are pre-qualified for World Competition, but all of the 145 teams have the chance to advance. Those that win regional competitions this spring will only then realize that TEA will not allow them to take their sophomore and junior team members to the World Championship. This is a handicap that can not be overcome. We are more than willing to send extra certified teachers to administer the TAKS test if TEA would allow us that exemption. We also would welcome a TEA representative in St. Louis to supervise the TAKS testing for every Texas student, not only those from Team 148.
Thank you, we appreciate very much your attention to this letter and hope to hear from your office in regard to this matter.


I wanted to make this issue public, because I figure the more people that know sooner, the more people can help us in our efforts to try and get this decision reversed. Our team is more then willing to help administer the tests to all Texas teams affected. We are also looking into the possibility of getting a TEA representative to travel with us to administer the test. In that case we would be happy to coordinate with any other team affected by this, have one big testing site.

If anyone is interested in helping us with our efforts please contact me via PM or by replying to this thread. I trust that as a unit we can have more of an influence then individually.

[JohnSchneider]

3310 is also pre-qualified*

Our school seems to be ok with allowing us to have our students skip that week and take makeup exams. Though we're not 100% sure of this. I would like to see the Texas educational board make an exception for something obviously important to it's new initiatives.

The other side of it is though....would they make an exception for a sport like football; or band. Probably not...so I could see that argument too.

On a side note, The dallas regional is on our prom weekend...so no seniors at Dallas, and no underclassmen at Worlds would make for a horrible experience.

[Kris Verdeyen]

"The other side of it is though....would they make an exception for a sport like football; or band. Probably not...so I could see that argument too."

Way off. If there was such a thing as the world championship of high school football, they would sure as heck schedule the TAKS around it.

Adrienne, I wasn't aware of this issue. I'm quite sure we've done this (TAKS at the Championship) for at least 10 years.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Kris Verdeyen

"The other side of it is though....would they make an exception for a sport like football; or band. Probably not...so I could see that argument too."

Way off. If there was such a thing as the world championship of high school football, they would sure as heck schedule the TAKS around it.

Adrienne, I wasn't aware of this issue. I'm quite sure we've done this (TAKS at the Championship) for at least 10 years.

IDK bout that. For Texas+football=Rule override lol I can see them doing that for football.

[Adrienne E.]

Originally Posted by Kris Verdeyen

Adrienne, I wasn't aware of this issue. I'm quite sure we've done this (TAKS at the Championship) for at least 10 years.

Kris, I wasn't aware it would be a big deal either. Although this is only second year on 148, the teacher that used to run the team still works at the school. She said this happened every year the Championship was in Disney and a couple years in Atlanta. Each time they were able to test the kids at the competition. When I talked to the person at TEA, she said they did used to let this happen but they are no longer granting this exception. She didn't give me any more of a reason then that.

[Meredith Novak]

Excellent letter, Adrienne. Just another example of how our schools have been totally taken over by the testing INDUSTRY. Our 10th graders have to come a day late to St. Louis. We have had similar fights more times than I can recall; more headaches, more heartaches at the hands of the education professionals. I thank God we have education professionals like yourself who understand the needs of our students in this competitive world. Keep fighting the good fight - it means a lot to the kids!

[wilsonmw04]

Unless political winds change, we might have be come to grips that high stakes testing is here to stay for the foreseeable future. I don't teach in Texas, but we always have two testing windows for the students in VA. One for all students and another for those who needs makeups. Is this not the case in all states?

[dodar]

In 2007 this actually happened with the Florida Regional and FCAT Science testing. The state made FCAT Science the same week as Florida so pretty much each team lost half their students. After going through 1 year of it our former non-build team leader went to the state and pretty much got them to change the week of FCAT Science testing to the week before Florida so that no matter what week Florida is it is always the week before.

[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by dodar

In 2007 this actually happened with the Florida Regional and FCAT Science testing. The state made FCAT Science the same week as Florida so pretty much each team lost half their students. After going through 1 year of it our former non-build team leader went to the state and pretty much got them to change the week of FCAT Science testing to the week before Florida so that no matter what week Florida is it is always the week before.

I don't know where your getting your information, but that doesn't match with what I remember from 2008 and 2010.

[Stuart]

so I just checked the Texas website(WARNING PDF) for the 2012 dates of TAKS . . guess what.




I hope this sequel is better than the first