High school students gearing up to take the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness end-of-course exams will have a lighter load this year as the Texas Legislature implemented changes reducing the number of tests that will be administered.
The reduction in the number of tests is a move local administrators said will lessen the burden on teachers and students and put the emphasis back on subject matter mastery rather than test preparation.
"We believe that we should be accountable to our parents and our community, and the STAAR test is one way of doing this," MISD Superintendent Todd Stephens said. "However, the overemphasis on testing in the last few years has created intense pressure in our system and pointed education toward the test. The reduction in testing by the Legislature has helped to ease this testing fervor so that we can get on with educating students for success in their future."
Under House Bill 5, which was passed by the 83rd Texas Legislature, high school students are now required to pass five STAAR end-of-course exams to meet the new graduation requirements, said State Rep. Cecil Bell, R-Magnolia. Before HB5 was passed, high school students had to take 15 end-of-course exams. The five assessments under HB 5 include Algebra I, English I, English II, biology and U.S. history, all of which must be passed to be eligible to graduate from a Texas public high school, he said.
HB 5 also eliminated the 15 percent grading requirement, which stated that a student's score on the STAAR end-of-course exams would have counted for 15 percent of the student's final grade in each tested subject area. The STAAR end-of-course cumulative score component was also eliminated, Bell said.
"We are happy the legislature listened to the parents and helped us not be so test-focused by reducing the number of tests at the high school level," said Anita Hebert, assistant superintendent for curriculum at MISD. "We were required to administer 15 and now it's five, and we are happy they listened to us because now students don't have to be so focused on passing a bunch of tests to graduate."
Hebert said changes to STAAR testing for elementary students in grades three through eight were proposed by the Legislature but did not pass, so no changes were made to the tests administered or the time allotted for each test.
TEKS curriculum
Texas has a list of all the Texas Essential Knowledge Skills for every grade level and every subject, which the law requires all schools teach and is the basis for all questions on the STAAR exam, TISD Director of Communications Staci Stanfield said.
Teachers prepare their students for the STAAR by teaching the required TEKS as the main focus of the curriculum. The TEKS, which was created by teachers and approved by the state, is designed to provide students with the knowledge and learning strategies to be successful in higher education or the workforce, she said.
"The STAAR test is one of many methods we use to determine the effectiveness of our instruction and to identify areas that need improvement," Stanfield said. "Some students with special needs are provided alternative versions of the STAAR test, but all students are provided an opportunity to master the grade level standards."
MISD also places a strong emphasis on teaching the required TEKS and emphasizes application, analysis and problem solving, Hebert said. The TEKS standards are rigorous, much like the STAAR exam, and proper teaching of these standards will allow students to be successful on the STAAR exam, she said.
"We work to minimize 'test practice,' focusing instead on mastery of the skills and thinking required in the curriculum," Hebert said. "Our teachers plan interesting lessons that involve the students in higher level learning and check student progress throughout the year in both informal and formal ways. Our goal is that students will be successful on the STAAR exam due to high quality instruction in the classroom every day."
STAAR exams
The purpose of the STAAR exams is to determine if students are prepared to move forward, Stanfield said. At the lower levels it determines if the student is ready to advance to the next grade level. At the high school level, the end-of-course exams are used to determine if the student is adequately prepared for post-secondary education or workplace entry, she said.
"The STAAR program is a more rigorous testing program than the former TAKS test," Hebert said. "It was designed to measure student readiness for the next grade and ultimately for college and career preparation. Its focus is on application of skills, higher-level analysis and multistep problem solving."
All students in grades three through eight are required to take the appropriate STAAR test, and all high school students are required to take the five end-of-course exams, Stanfield said.
High school students who fail to pass the end-of-course exams will have multiple opportunities to retest. Often, students who fail the exam will move ahead and will receive tutorial instruction the following year to help them pass the retest, Hebert said.
Students in the fifth and eighth grades are required to pass the STAAR mathematics and reading tests to advance to the sixth and ninth grades, respectively. Students who do not pass these tests are provided with three additional opportunities to pass and advance to the next grade, Stanfield said.
If a student still does not pass, then teachers and principals meet with the parents to take into consideration grades and other factors to determine what is in the best interest of the student. If the student is advanced to the next grade, a plan will be implemented to help the student prepare for the next test, she said.
"There has been a correlation to grades in the classroom and scores on the STAAR exam because the material tested on the exam is the same material that is taught in the classroom," Stanfield said. "Seldom does a student who makes stellar grades in the classroom fail to be successful on the STAAR. A student might have a bad day or not try on the test, but if they are prepared, they should pass the test by the third administration."
