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.