State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness

The official STAAR logo. The logo is mainly based on the design of the Texan flag.

The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, commonly referred to as its acronym STAAR (star), are a series of state-mandated standardized tests used in Texas public primary and secondary schools to assess a student's achievements and knowledge learned in the grade level. It tests curriculum taught from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which in turn is taught by public schools. The test used to be developed by Pearson Education every school year, although the most recent contract gave Educational Testing Service a role in creating some of the tests,^[1] under the close supervision of the Texas Education Agency.

The test was announced because the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (commonly referred to its acronym TAKS) assessment was repealed by Texas Senate Bill 1031 in spring 2007. The bill called for secondary schools (for grades 9-11) to take end of course assessments every time a student was at the end of taking a course, instead of taking general "core subject" tests. STAAR mostly replaced the TAKS in the spring of 2012, although students who entered 10th grade before the 2011-2012 school year continued to take the TAKS.^[2] This process is part of the TAKS to STAAR transition plan. By 2015 the last students will be taking the TAKS test, and the first students will graduate with completed STAAR end of course assessments. However, many policies from the TAKS are still retained in the STAAR's policies.

Schools who receive funds from the state of Texas are required to enforce these tests among students who attend the schools. Any private school, charter school, or homeschooling that does not receive monetary support from Texas is not required to take the STAAR test, and as of May 2012 can only take the TAKS test via ordering from Pearson.

History

When Senate Bill 1031 was passed in spring 2007, it called for the TAKS to be repealed. In 2010 Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott announced the successor to the TAKS, STAAR. The STAAR had intensified rigorousness and end of course assessments, instead of a unified 9th, 10th, and 11th grade Mathematics, ELA, Science and Social Studies test. Therefore, one would take an Algebra I test in order to pass Algebra I, and so on. During a speech at the Texas Association of School Administrators’ Midwinter Conference in Austin, Scott also said the last TAKS-based school accountability ratings will be issued in 2011. Ratings will be suspended in 2012 while a new accountability system is developed. The new state rating system will debut in 2013.

The grade 3-8 STAAR tests in reading and mathematics, by law, must be linked from grade to grade to performance expectations for the English III and Algebra II end-of-course assessments.

Structure

Note: Grade 9-11 now take end of course assessments.
Italics means a student must pass all STAAR tests to move up to the next grade level.
† - means Math-related end of course exams (Algebra I, )

‡ - means that if taken, Mathematics STAAR test is optional.

The test formats are relatively the same compared to the TAKS test in 3-8 grade, however in 9-11th grade end of course tests will be taken to supplement the normal tests taken while the TAKS was still in effect.

The STAAR end of course assessments are, in their respective order:

• English I, II
• Algebra I
• Biology
• U.S. History

If a student in grade 8 or below takes Algebra I, Geometry, or Algebra II before grade 9, the student must take the respective end of course STAAR assessment as well as the standard STAAR tests given, but it is up to the school districts to determine if the student should take the STAAR Mathematics test or not; it is completely optional in this case.^[3]

Testing procedure

A student will begin the test after instruction from their proctors. The students will then have 4 hours to complete the test. For lunch, either a student is led to the appropriate place while the proctor locks up the tests in the test taking area, or their tests are confiscated for a 30-minute lunch period. The 4 hour time limit stops when the student is eating lunch and continues after lunch is over. However, if a student must get up to use the restroom, they will not be allowed extra time - they will lose time from their 4-hour time limit.

Finishing early is allowed, however after turning in the test or after the four-hour time limit is reached, the test will be taken away and the test may not be retrieved back and afterwards transferred to a confidential, secure place where the tests will then be transferred to the Texas Education Agency or Pearson Education.

When the student finishes, the student must remain in their seats at all times and either read, sit quietly, or sleep; they cannot talk to any other person except the proctor, who may service the student for dictionaries, pencils, highlighters, restroom breaks, and to complete the test. The proctor cannot help a student with the test, but is allowed to help the student with instructions. The proctor is, by law, not allowed to speak of the STAAR at any time except when testing, as mandated by a manual, or casually discussing the STAAR procedure, not the assessment itself. It is possible for the proctor to be jailed if cheating occurs.

After everybody in the room has completed the test, they must remain in the room and either read or sleep until the students are released. Talking or any form of communication is still strictly forbidden and any mention of the STAAR may result in test scores being invalidated or other disciplinary action.

Any electronic devices in a student's possession will be confiscated before testing begins. If one does not turn in electronic devices in their possession to the proctor before testing begins and the cell phone rings, vibrates, is used, or seen during the test, that student's test scores will be invalidated, and the proctor, along with the student, will be dealt with by an administrator. The proctor or student may face legal trouble as state law requires that no students are to have electronic devices of any sort with them during testing.^[4]

Versions

As with the TAKS, there will be the regular STAAR, STAAR M (Modified), STAAR A (Accommodated), and STAAR L. STAAR M is for special education testers, while STAAR A has fewer questions and only 3 answer choices per question, making it easier for the tester. STAAR L is a linguistically accommodated English version for English Language Learning students who cannot read as well as others and may have trouble reading. There is a person by the side reading the STAAR L test with the tester.^[2]

Test development

The Texas Education Agency, Pearson Education (Texas' state assessment contractor), and Texas public school educators collaborate to create a STAAR assessment. First, educators from all over Texas review the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (the statewide curriculum)^[5](state-mandated curriculum) to determine the objectives to assess on each grade level. However, there are usually guidelines to which questions should be tested more or not as much. Then educators determined how the objectives could be best assessed and developed guidelines outlining eligible test content and test-item formats. This information is transferred to the TEA and given to Pearson Education, who develops test items based on the objectives and guidelines, and the TEA reviews those items. Teacher committees^[6] are brought to Austin to review the proposed test items, and finally the items are field-tested on some Texas students, called a "mock test." Using the input of the teacher committee and the results of field-testing, TEA and Pearson build the real STAAR. Very hard questions are usually removed from the test. A more detailed explanation^[7] is available from the Student Assessment Division of TEA.^[8] Most of the procedure follows the TAKS' development procedure.

Differences between predecessors

Like the TAKS test, STAAR employs standardized tests to assess students' skills in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.^[2] The TEA states that "The STAAR tests will be more rigorous than the TAKS tests and are designed to measure a student’s college and career readiness, starting in elementary school."^[9]

The Texas Education Agency says that the STAAR program for grades 3–8 will assess the same subjects as TAKS did, but that for high school "...grade-specific assessments will be replaced with 12 end-of-course (EOC) assessments: Algebra I, geometry, Algebra II, biology, chemistry, physics, English I, English II, English III, world geography, world history, and U.S. history."^[2]

Like the TAKS, the STAAR is mandatory every year, unlike the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, which called for one-time testing for every student. The STAAR also has a new time limit, four hours, unlike its predecessors, TAKS and TAAS. A dictionary policy allows students to use dictionaries in the Reading or English tests, beginning in grade 6.

Scoring

Unlike the previous TAKS test, the commissioner of education announced on April 24, 2012 that the new performance standards students that take end of course exams must meet are Advanced Academic Performance (Highly prepared, like the TAKS test's commended level), Satisfactory Academic Performance (Sufficiently prepared but not the best, like the TAKS test's passing level), and Unsatisfactory Academic Performance (Insufficiently prepared for the next grade and does not move on to the next grade).^[9] However, Scott announced that the scoring system has been suspended for the 2011-2012 school year. There have been no announcements of grades 3-8 grading yet.

See also

• Texas Assessment of Basic Skills- the first standardized test used by Texas from 1980 until 1983.
• Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills - the second standardized test used by Texas from 1984 until 1990.
• Texas Assessment of Academic Skills - the third standardized test used by Texas from 1991 until 2002.
• Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills - the fourth standardized test used by Texas from 2003 until 2011.
• Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills - commonly referred to as TEKS, the state mandated curriculum of Texas.

References

Reference 2: The structure of testing/scoring has been revised. This brochure's information is no longer valid.

External links

• Texas Education Agency information on STAAR.
• Texas Education Agency information on Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS; pronounced teeks).