What’s in a Name???

 I haven’t written in a while.   I’ve think about it almost daily; however, it never seems to get accomplished. 

I blame it on the season.  You see, for me, and every public school teacher (at least those teaching 3^rd to 12^th grade) this is TAKS season. 

Not Tax season, although it is that as well, but TAKS season.

For those of you not in Texas, or who don’t have children in public school, TAKS stands for; Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

TAKS season is a stressful time for me.  I tend to worry and borrow trouble, so that only adds to my stress.  Top that off with two days of after school tutoring to 4:30, and Saturday School (an evil spawn of the devil!) and I get home too weary to write.

I know, that you know, that I’ve written and whined about the TAKS test for years.  But what you may not know is that this is absolutely the last year I will ever complain about the TAKS test.  After June 3, 2011, TAKS test complaining is a thing of the past…at least for me.  “Why?” You may be asking.  Well, I’ll tell you.  It’s all because this is the last TAKS test year. 

After this year the test will is called STAAR.  I think it stands for:

 State of Texas, Academic Assessment Registry, or Response, or Retrospective, or some other “R” word. 

Amidst all the hub-bub of the faculty meeting where we first learned of the new test, I found myself wondering not whether this test would be the same format, not whether it would be longer or shorter, and not if it would still be multiple choice or short answer.  In fact I didn’t find myself wondering anything about the test at all.  What my brain had fixated on was “Who?”  Who had the super cool job thinking up the acronyms for these tests?

I WANT THAT JOB!

Here are a few I came up with:

Knowledge Readiness Assessment of Progress – or K.R.A.P.

Progressive Observation Of Progress – or P.O.O.P.

State of Texas Unified Process of Intelligence Determination – or S.T.U.P.I.D.

State Hierarchy of Intelligence Testing – or S.H.I.T. (Sorry Mom!)

Let me know what you think, and feel free to add to the list.  Who know, maybe I’ll email the list to Governor Fancy Hair.


P.S. I didn't realize until after I had posted my story and went back to reread, that three fourths of my acronyms are slang terms for fecal material...Hmmm? I wonder how I really feel?