HISD trustees vote to suspend the use of test scores in retention decisions

Standardized test scores will no longer be used to determine which students in grades 3, 4, 6 and 7 will be held back after the Houston ISD Board of Education voted 7-2 to permanently suspend the scores' use in such decisions.

The state mandates retention and promotion decisions for students in fifth and eighth grades be based on their STAAR scores, but Houston was among the only Texas school districts to use the scores to determine who will be held back in other grades.

The board was originally going to vote to suspend the use of test scores in retention decisions just for this school year, but Trustee Rhonda Skillern-Jones proposed making the change permanent.

http://www.chron.com/news/article/HISD-trustees-vote-to-suspend-the-use-of-test-10854602.php