ABSTRACT
The first-grade teacher began the daily calendar activity saying, “Hoy es un día nubloso, quiere decir que (a) hay sol, (b) hay nubes, o (c) esta lloviendo” (Today is a cloudy day, this means that [a] there is sun, [b] there are clouds, or [c] it is raining). The children in unison shout out “(b) hay nubes.” Later the teacher explained that because of the “pressure to show that I am preparing the children for the different tests,” she tried to include the multiple choice format in a variety of activities conducted during each day. The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) has defined success as being able to perform with multiple choice materials that isolate particular skills or asks the child to name strategies as opposed to assessing the actual performance of the child’s ability to read, write, and reason for multiple purposes. The state, and thus the district and the campus, requires the TAAS as part of the institutional accountability. It is the TAAS that the teachers and students feel dominates the curriculum and is what their performance will be judged by.
