Dr. Kim Alexander, the superintendent of Roscoe Collegiate Independent School District in Texas, started out as a farmer and rancher. A persistent drought forced him to use his college degree to land a job at the local school, which initiated his career in education, where he has worn many hats on his road to becoming superintendent.
Roscoe is one of 44 Texas districts that are members of the Texas Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC), a group that is working on creating alternative accountability methods to the standardized testing that permeates education today.
I talked with Kim about his thoughts on standardized testing and what we can do to fix this broken and outdated system. He says the size of Texas and its 5.5 million students makes it difficult to measure student achievement without standardization, but the fact that the state is so diverse makes it hard to do anything meaningful with that standardization.
At Roscoe, they’ve been working on a multiple-measure local accountability system for over ten years while advocating an associate degree as their local measure of college readiness. As he puts it, “we figured if you're halfway finished, you might be college ready.”
The problems with standardized testing and with teachers teaching to the test are complex and will require thoughtful solutions for any significant positive change to occur. It’s good to hear smart leaders like Kim are working on a better educational future for our students.
About Dr. Kim Alexander
Dr. Kim Alexander of Roscoe is superintendent of Roscoe Collegiate Independent School District. Prior to that, he served in a variety of roles within the school district as high school principal, grant writer and English language arts and kinesiology teacher.
Previously, he served as a teacher in Sweetwater Independent School District and Highland Independent School District. In addition to his career in education, Alexander is a self-employed production agriculturalist that manages crops and livestock production. He is a member of Texas Association of School Administrators, Texas Association of Professional Educators, American Association of School Administrators (AASA), American Cotton Growers Association, Red Angus Association of America and Realtors’ Land Institute.
Alexander earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Angelo State University, master’s degree in educational administration from Abilene Christian University and doctorate degree in agricultural education through a joint program with Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University.
Further Reading:
Language Magazine - Teaching Tools
Education Week - Digital Communication Tools Target ESSA Parent-Engagement Mandate
Additional Reading:
A passion for collaborative learning and student growth
K-8 learning boosted by interactive curriculum
Assessment platforms helping transparency in schools
About Rod Berger, PsyD.
Dr. Rod Berger is President and CEO of MindRocket Media Group. Berger is a global education media personality and strategic influencer featured in The Huffington Post, Scholastic, AmericanEdTV, edCircuit, EdTechReview India and Forbes
Audiences have enjoyed education interviews with the likes of Sir Ken Robinson, Arne Duncan, Randi Weingarten, Sal Khan along with leading edtech investors, award-winning educators, and state and federal education leaders. Berger’s latest project boasts a collaboration with AmericanEdTV and CBS’s Jack Ford.
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