In 2019, the 86th Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3906, which initiated changes to the State of Texas Assessments of Academics Readiness, effective by the 2022-23 school year. Major changes included new question formats, cross-curricular questions and transitioning to online testing.
“Assessments provide teachers and parents with helpful information to see how individual students are performing so they can better support those students moving forward,” a Texas Education Agency spokesperson said.
While educators were canvassed to provide feedback on the test redesign, many said the redesign and new, upcoming accountability scoring methodology create challenges for students and districts. They also said they believe too much weight is placed on STAAR when measuring student and school performance.
“We believe that students are involved in many things that help them to achieve academically,” said Jennifer Valdez, Alvin ISD deputy superintendent of academics. “Weighing one test on one day in the school year so heavily is not an overall accurate reflection of a student’s ability to be a successful learner. It is one measure, but not the only measure.”
Local district response TEA officials have said STAAR was redesigned to “make the test more tightly aligned to the classroom experience.” However, some local educators said they believe classroom procedures need to be adjusted to prepare students for the new test.
“We’re teaching the same content, it’s just being asked in a different direction,” Pearland ISD Superintendent Larry Berger said.
In addition to now being online, the new STAAR can have up to 75% of its questions be multiple choice with the remainder consisting of 14 question types. The new question types have students perform tasks, such as selecting a point on a map or adding the missing portion of an equation, according to the TEA’s website.
Since last summer, PISD’s administrators have been working with teachers to get them acclimated to the questioning format for their content areas so they can efficiently prepare their students for the new test, which was first administered in April and May 2023, said Melissa Ward, PISD’s director of testing and program evaluation. “Maybe in a classroom discussion, they may go deeper into something rather than just a kid giving an answer,” Ward said. “Now they have to say why they came up with that answer. So they’re kind of disguising that practice just through regular classroom instruction.”
The focus of these exercise and training shifts rests on the fact that students are already taught what’s on the new exam, but with the redesign, they had to become familiar with the new format to effectively show what they knew, Ward said.
“We don’t want to make it a STAAR lesson,” Berger said. “We just want to make it a lesson with depth and complexity that aligns with the possible strategy that STAAR will use to ask the questions.”
Another important change is the consolidation of cross-curriculum materials on the same portions of the test. For example, students are now evaluated on their mastery of grammar and writing on the social studies portion of the test.
“We’re making sure that our teachers are planning cross-curriculum and that students understand that, ‘Hey, even though [this] may be a social studies passage, I may have to apply my writing skills and my textual evidence skills to the social studies passage,’” Berger said.
Online transition
As part of the redesign, STAAR was required to be administered online by the 2022-23 school year with the reasoning being that it provides test results faster, improves test operations and allows new non-multiple-choice questions.
PISD initiated online testing in 2019—two years prior to the mandate—and allowed students to practice online with the test so they could get familiar with how the new questions were asked so as to not “let the new structure interfere with you showing what you know,” Berger said. Alvin ISD transitioned to online testing for the 2022 spring administration of STAAR, before the mandate took effect.
“We are teaching the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills through an aligned district curriculum and ensuring students have opportunities to practice the multiple answer types that are reflected on the new STAAR test,” Valdez said. “Our district testing throughout the school year is fully online to align with how students will be tested on STAAR.”
However, Berger said the technology updates required for online testing have contributed to a budget gap for the district. Over the next five years, there is an expected $25 million to $35 million needed for technology, and officials said they do not have the projected revenue to cover this budget without dipping into reserve funds.
While there is no specific state funding set aside for this purpose, Berger said the district applies for every stream of funding that it can but felt the state has done “very little with their $32 billion surplus to support education funding.”
While TEA officials argued the transition to online testing eats up the cost of paper and other testing materials, Berger countered that the district is spending $6.8 million in the fiscal year 2023-24 budget to keep the 1-1 ratio of devices per student.
“That is not necessarily a line-funded item allocated by the state,” Berger said. “That’s just included in our basic allotment that hasn’t changed since 2019.”
In its Transition to STAAR Online Assessments Implementation Guide, the TEA recommends a 3-1 student-to-device ratio yet allows schools to administer tests in staggered windows so schools that don’t have the capabilities to have every student test online simultaneously can still administer an online test.
A-F refresh
In addition to changing the test structure, the state has also adjusted how it measures district and school accountability with the A-F accountability score refresh.
The TEA has handed down an A-F score for districts and schools since 2017—excluding the 2020-21 year due to the coronavirus pandemic. While schools this year will still receive a score calculated by three domains, the TEA will take on a new unreleased method.
While districts have received preliminary data and insights into how they will be scored, Berger said the final changes and rules won’t be shared until September, despite STAAR being given in May.
Since STAAR is a major component of a district’s overall A-F score, this is concerning for district officials who already feel STAAR is given too much weight in determining a school or district’s accountability, said Bob Popinski, who is the senior director of policy for Raise Your Hand Texas.
In fact, Raise Your Hand Texas, an education advocacy organization for Texas public schools, released its Measure What Matters Report in October. The report recommends STAAR should count for less than 50% of a school’s score.
“We’re not getting rid of assessment; it does play a certain role in how we hold schools and students accountable,” Popinski said. “But there are other indicators that are just as important.”
On top of that, school districts won’t receive their scores until September, after the school year starts, which Berger said makes it difficult to plan and make necessary adjustments for the 2023-24 year.
“This whole system has caused our instructional planning to be pushed back as well,” Berger said.
Berger is also concerned the new scoring criteria would give the schools a lower report card rating, despite nothing changing in the district’s curriculums or performance.
Last year, the state provided the district with a “what if” scenario that showed, under the redesigned STAAR and scoring system, PISD’s score dropped from a 94 to a 90, and some campuses even dropped from A to B campuses, Berger said.
“So that’s our major concern,” Berger added. “This new grading system is going to put more stress on the teachers and more stress on the kids in the community. People are going to look in the newspaper and go, ‘Wait a minute, Pearland ISD is now a B district. What happened?’”
While he is concerned about the challenges created by the grading system, Berger said he is confident his district and other districts will be able to adapt.
“We don’t want to make excuses because obviously you have a new test that came out, and the structure is new, and then you have a new grading system,” Berger said. “There’s going to be a time where we have to start over, and we have to figure out, ‘OK, these are the new rules. This is the new playground. How are we going to make this work for our kids?’”
Friendswood ISD officials declined an interview request.
Texas provides annual academic accountability ratings to school districts and charter schools for three areas across several factors, including State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness scores, according to the Texas Education Agency. This year, districts’ A-F rating will not be released until September, which some educators worry does not give the district enough time to react.
