George Scott has established Middle School Up Literacy

A new website under the direction of now retired but former community-based journalist and president of a major Houston area nonprofit public policy research organization has been established with a goal of creating direct advocacy programs for parents of public education students that could serve as a statewide template.

George Scott – a harsh critic of Texas’ student testing and accountability systems – has established Middle School Up Literacy with two goals in focus: “help parents more effectively advocate for their children in a student testing system that has harmed them educationally and to report extensively on the upcoming release of 2025 STAAR test results on a regional and statewide basis.”

“While Texas has had student testing since the 1970’s, it was not until the development of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test in 1989 and the Texas Legislature’s adoption of Senate Bill 7 in 1993 that the Texas Education Agency linked test results to a formal accountability system with any relevance,” Scott said.

“Rarely recalled today, the foundation of student testing was actually federal court decision Civil Order 5281 in the early 1970s,” Scott noted. “That’s when Judge William Wayne Justice issued an order that in effect sought to drive the final nails in the coffin of the State’s historical segregation of minority students and so-called ‘separate but equal school systems. That decision led to annual student testing.”

A key edited excerpt from that ruling mandated:

“The Texas Education Agency shall institute a study of the educational needs of minority group children in order to ensure equal educational opportunities of all students…The curricular offerings and programs…shall include specific educational programs to compensate minority group children for unequal educational opportunities resulting from past or present racial and ethnic isolation…”

What made TAAS different than the previous tests?

“With Senate Bill 7, Texas agreed that it had a statutory and constitutional burden to close academic achievement gaps between economically disadvantaged at-risk students and other student populations,” Scott noted. “There’s no evidence of which I am aware that this burden has been eliminated legally,” Scott said.

Scott cites key passages from Senate Bill 7; a 1994 decision of the Supreme Court of Texas; and an official TEA acknowledgement in July 1993:

SENATE BILL 7: “All students shall have access to an education of high quality that will prepare them to full now and in the future social, economic, and educational opportunities in Texas. The achievement gap between educational disadvantaged students and other populations will be closed…”

TEXAS SUPREME COURT: “…The Legislature defines the contours of its constitutional duty to provide a general diffusion of knowledge…Most notably, the Legislature envisions that the achievement gap between property rich and property poor districts will be closed…”

TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY: “The achievement gap between educationally disadvantaged students and other populations will be closed…”

“It has been my thesis as a community-based journalist and public policy researcher for a major 501 (c) 3 public policy research organization before retirement that the State of Texas has pervasively manipulated the academic integrity of its testing and accountability system in the 30 plus years between the launch of TAAS to the current STAAR eras to project a false picture of the academic skills of Texas students,” Scott said.

“Our website is dedicated to documenting that reality conclusively and to try to develop effective advocacy programs for parents whose children are being harmed,” Scott said. “We are willing to work the news media to assist their journalistic research efforts.”

“It is not possible in one press release to fully unveil the systemic deception and academic compromises that has poisoned the academic integrity of the State’s cumulative systems over three decades,” Scott said. “In addition to trying to help parents directly, I will use the website as a legacy publication to fully document – historically and currently – the trail of deception that has harmed so many children for so long.”

As a teaser to the full story and documentation that will become available on the website over the next months, Scott gives two representations from the early days of the TAAS system in the 1990’s to last year’s 2024 STAAR (current) tests.

ACTUAL TAAS ERA MATH TEST QUESTIONS:

ON A 5^TH GRADE TEST: A magazine cost $3.75. Lenny gave the clerk $20 for the magazine. How much change should Lenny have received from the clerk? (multiple choice)

ON A 10^TH GRADE TEST: At a restaurant Steve ordered food totaling $6.85. If he paid with a $20 bill, how much change should he receive?

“That example was systemic during TAAS. Reading tests did not escape manipulation,” Scott said.

2024 STAAR CRITERION PASSING & GRADE LEVEL PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

END OF COURSE ENGLISH I: Content Mastery: Passing 42% – Grade Level 55%

END OF COURSE BIOLOGY: Content Mastery:  Passing 26% – Grade Level 45%

“STAAR’s low performance standards are systemic across the board,” he added.

“Middle School Literacy Up accepts the challenge of telling the truth and helping parents,” Scott said. “We start by providing data and analysis on 2024 STAAR in preparation for the impending release of 2025 results local, regional, and statewide.”

End of News Release * Please See Information Attachment 

My DUE DILIGENCE disclosure you deserve: The website will market services and products, but I hope you will understand two important points:

1. I made numerous efforts to ask 501 c 3 groups and targeted individuals to financially support the component of our website that hopes to provide direct advocacy help primarily to parents of at-risk students statistically dominated by children of color at absolutely NO COST. Although unsuccessful to this point, it is my hope some support can be gained now from these sources since we have launched and they can see what we are trying to accomplish and the professionalism we are trying to establish.
2. I have dipped into retirement funds to get this website and effort started professionally. Any fee structure for direct advocacy helping parents will be designed to cover costs and will be reasonable. At 75, it is not really feasible for me to keep dipping into retirement funds. I can carry this on through much of 2025 but I hope I can find some support to make it as effective as possible.

Hopefully, it will give you some of the basic information you need to consider how you might add to if necessary one or more components to your coverage of Texas public education test results when they are released late spring or perhaps in early June.

The reason I did not do the full ethnic/demographic profile in these tables is because 2025 results will be released soon. I want to use all students in conjunction with at-risk and not at-risk student to demonstrate the dramatic achievement gaps which exist some 30 years after the State acknowledged its burden to close achievement gaps.

When and if you look at these actual tables, please take special note of the % of students who PASS the test but still performance BELOW GRADE LEVEL.