Markowitz plans to remove standardized testing because it “is inevitably and inherently racist in its creation and distribution.”

Markowitz plans to remove standardized testing because it “is inevitably and inherently racist in its creation and distribution.” ♦ Markowitz states in the “Two Broads Talking Politics” podcast: So I truly believe that the core or the root of all of our issues is standardized testing, and particularly the star test. I spent the time that I was working on my doctorate studying standardized tests and doing analysis on how effective they are and whether they actually do work in an assessment environment, and the fact of the matter is that standardized tests have no bearing on the aptitude, ability, or achievement of a school teacher or institution. So, and they've also been proven to be invalid, unreliable metrics of any of the aforementioned. So, here we are, plunging hundreds of millions of dollars into simply the creation of the star test, let alone the lost learning time, the penalization that teachers face if they don't achieve a certain score, the funding that is linked to standardized testing, which is inevitably and inherently racist in its creation and distribution, and so we have this test that is essentially determining the educational outcomes for all students. So, I've said publicly that the first piece of legislation that I would file would be to eliminate the STAAR test from the curriculum. I think we also need to get back to teaching teachers how to teach, instead of teaching to a test, which is also linked to our standardized testing, we need to stop linking school funding to standardized test scores, because again, these tests are created in the mindset of a high-class Caucasian individual taking these tests, and Texas is not that state. We are a diverse cornucopia of different ethnicities and nationalities, and so a single standardized test is not going to meet the needs of our students. Two Broads Talking Politics, “Dr. Eliz Markowitz”, 12/04/2019, Timestamp 10:37-13:04, [downloaded video]

♦ In her 2026 campaign, Markowitz has continued to argue against standardized tests, theorizing that the testing happens because they want money. She stated so on the “Crystal Loves Texas” podcast (December 2025), with two others who also work in education and hate the standardized testing.