Tag Archive for ‘Texas’ at The Core Knowledge Blog

Texas has spent nearly $300 million since 2003 on expensive anti-psychotic medications for poor children, according to a new federal study. The drugs cost more, have worse side effects in kids and are no more effective than older generics.

“The drugs, known as atypical anti-psychotics, are designed to treat schizophrenia but are also used for everything from autism to attention deficit disorder. Pharmaceutical firms have aggressively marketed the drugs to child psychiatrists and state health officials,” says the Dallas Morning News, which notes prescriptions for kids have increased fivefold in the last 15 years.

“States have spent a tremendous amount of money unnecessarily for drugs that are no safer than the older drugs that are a fraction of the cost,” said Allen Jones, a Pennsylvania whistleblower who investigates drug company influence tells the paper. “It appears, based on what the science is telling us, that an enormous amount of money was spent for no real benefit.”

A section of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) is coming under scrutiny. Even Texas’ best students struggle with a section of the test that asks students to express themselves and back up their claims with evidence, revealing either faulty tests or preparation.

Three short-response questions require students to stretch their brains by generating clear, reasonable ideas from a reading selection, the Dallas Morning News reports. Then they must support those ideas with evidence from the text in a well-written response. ”Students are passing the ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade language arts TAKS at higher rates than ever, the paper notes. “Some even post near-perfect passing rates. But on the short-response portion, fewer than half of North Texas students pass.”

Texas Education Agency officials say the short-response questions provide a better window into how well students can think, communicate and write. ”This paints a much different picture for teachers and parents than the multiple-choice test,” Victoria Young, a testing official with TEA tells the paper. “You’re finding out two very different things about kids.” Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association said curriculum doesn’t have the depth it used to because teachers are pulled in so many different directions by the TAKS demands.

Here’s the scoring rubric for the short-answer reading section of the test. Seems a reasonable set of tasks for high school students.