TX Children of Color Slip Through the Cracks According to Testing

With STAAR* testing scores at an all time low, it has been noted that those families being hit the hardest were those in low income households.

Being that many families opted for distance learning, this brought on new struggles for children of color that were already academically behind those children in affluent white areas.

Many households in the low income areas were single parent homes and homes in which the parents were the essential workers calling them away from home leaving the children to fend for themselves.

The scores show it, the kids felt it. I’ve researched and spoken to affluent families and families of a disadvantage I have discovered a trend:

The rich white affluent families were able to get extra help from teachers outside of school and they had access to tutors even while in the midst of COVID.

I even heard of some teachers “adopting” a handful of families within their network to ensure that their kids did not fall behind.

While I feel that the teachers in the minority communities did the best they could with what they had, I feel that even they were at a disadvantage.

Some homes may not have had access to the internet or may have had slow and poor internet connections making it near impossible to stay connected and actively involved in school distant learning.

Math and reading were the scores hit the hardest.

Education should be given fairly across the board.

Everyone is deserving of the proper tools, additional help if needed and support and encouragement from teachers and staff.

Only time will tell what the effects of these low test scores are.

More needs to be done to ensure that our children of color don’t slip through the cracks, pandemic or not.

*STAAR is the Texas state's testing program and is based on state curriculum standards in core subjects including reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies.