�When I realized I couldn�t answer the questions posed about two of my own poems on the Texas state assessment tests (STAAR Test), I had a flash of panic � oh, no! Not smart enough,� poet Sara Holbrook begins a recent Huffington Post piece about her stressful experience with Texas� infamous standardized test.

Holbrook makes a case against placing too much importance on the results of standardized tests after she found herself incapable of correctly answering questions on poems that she herself had written.

�Kids� futures and the evaluations of their teachers will be based on their ability to guess the so-called correct answer to made up questions,� she writes, imploring parents to �stand up and say, no more.�

Holbrook, who was emailed questions on her poems by an eighth-grade English teacher in Texas, includes the specific test questions she has difficulty answering, and writes that, �any test that questions the motivations of the author without asking the author is a big baloney sandwich.�

Holbrook�s piece came a day before a Texas Education Agency report was released grading Texas schools using a �new�A-F letter grade rating system�based heavily on state standardized test performance.� More than 30 percent of Texas schools scored Ds or Fs in four measures, including �student progress� and �postsecondary readiness.�

READ:�Texas schools and districts got their letter grades from state

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