The STAAR Test is an exam that determines if you pass to the next grade or not. Even if you pass your classes all year, this test is your only chance at progressing a level up. I'm going to be a sophomore this upcoming school year, which means I had to take the biology STAAR in May. If I didn't pass that exam, I would've failed that class. My sister was in 5th grade this previous school year. She passed her reading class all year, but when she took the STAAR, she failed it. By that time the school was already suggesting summer school, which you have to pay for. $200 for 2 weeks of summer school, but it wasn't mandatory. The school made her take the test again a week later. However, she failed it again, and only by one question. During that week, she did get tutoring for reading, but obviously it didn't help. Then the school made it mandatory for her to go to summer school. She would go for 2 weeks and take the STAAR for a third time. If she failed it again, her elective for the next school year would be taken away to be replaced with a remedial reading class. My sister knows how to read comprehensively and she does not need to take that class if she passed reading all year. Not only that, she already went to summer school for a week, but the state lost the STAAR scores and now she doesn't have to take it again. What was the point of summer school then?This test does not measure how smart a student is. This test puts students on the spot. This test gives students anxiety and sometimes depression. This test lowers their self-esteem. It makes them feel like they're not smart enough to go to the next grade. Some of us aren't good test takers in general. If teachers spent as much time teaching as they did "getting students ready for the STAAR", maybe we would actually learn more. It's different to teach us something and then have a test over it. But to make us already do that, plus take multiple STAAR tests at the end of the year is stressful for a student of any age. For my freshman biology STAAR test, my teacher gave us a 3 page review, front and back, to complete in 3 days. I'm not gonna lie, maybe one person did the whole thing without cheating, but most of us got our answers from others and the internet. Why? Because we didn't know what the answers were to half the questions, and that is not the student's fault. If you're going to make us do a review for a grade, teach us the content that's on it. Literally, the class all year was just her making power points of what we were supposed to learn. She would go through it with us in class while we took notes. If we didn't finish it, she would tell us that the power point was on her website and to take notes from there and then she would never go back to it again. I have 6 other classes that I have to take care of as well, sometimes I didn't have time for that. To print all of these tests, it costs the state of Texas 280 million dollars. They could be using that money for way better things. The school lunches could be better. Schools could buy more school supplies for the kids who need it. They're giving us a stupid test that isn't even necessary. My main point is that if schools want a majority of their students to pass for their reputation, stop making them take the STAAR test.