My Job is Secure.

That's right, folks. It's that lovely time of year again, TAKS season. Or, as we in the profession like to call it, hell. It's been especially time-consuming and anxiety-ridden this year, as this 8th grade class is the first class required to pass the reading and math tests before moving on to high school. Ah, No Child Left Behind. How I loathe thee.

Since the SSI (Student Success Initiative, otherwise known as the reason they have to pass the tests) has moved up to the 8th grade and they have to pass those two tests, the state moved up the testing days of reading and math in order to administer retakes to those students who cannot pass the test the first time around. Usually our tests are about the 3rd week in April. This year the reading test was March 5th and our math test was on April 8th. Yes, let's force the students to pass the test, even though some of them are simply not capable of on-level work, and let's give them less time in which to learn the material that they must to learn in order to pass said test. Brilliant. But I digress.

As I mentioned, we had our test on April 8th, and amazingly enough, the state did a quick 8 day turnaround on our scores. Our school's passing percentage was 87%, which I was disappointed in at first, this being the lowest percentage we've had since I started teaching in this school. However, we were told to examine our own students, take out those scores that did not count towards our percentages, and recalculate our passing rate for our own students. I hear you saying, "Why are there students that don't count?" Good question. There are students constantly moving in and out of school districts according to the will and whim of their parents, and the state didn't feel it was fair for a teacher to be responsible for the student's score if they had not been teaching them for the entire year. For once, the state got something right. They instituted "SnapShot Day", which usually occurs in late October. On that day, every student enrolled at the school will count against your scores for TAKS. If a student moves in after that date, they don't count for you, they count for their old school. And vice versa, for any students that move out of our school after that day. I had two students move in after that day, so I got to remove their scores from my list. There are also students who do not take the "real" TAKS, they take an accommodated version according to their skill level, and that test does not count for this year, since it's a brand-new test and the state lets the first year of a new test slide. Remove four more students from my count. After alllllll of that, my scores report as follows:

79 total students (I know, those of you that teach are staring in disbelief. Cheerleading can be fabulous.)

76 passing students (96%)
3 failing students (4%)
36 commended students (46%, only missed 5 or less questions)
8 perfect scores

I still have a job, even if it is one whose performance evals are based on the scores of a test over which I have no control whatsoever. But that's a rant for another day. For today, it's enough to know this is my best percentage yet. Hallelujah.