Frisco ISD, along with other Texas school districts, experienced issues with administering and receiving results of the 2016 State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness tests. At the FISD board of trustees regular meeting Aug. 8, director of assessment and accountability Gary Nye shared an update with the board of the 2015-16 STAAR testing and accountability and some of the issues it presented. In spring 2015, Educational Testing Service won the bid to be the new testing contractor to distribute the STAAR test throughout Texas. The 2015-16 school year was ETS’s first of a four-year contract with the Texas Education Agency. Issues with the contractor began early in March with technical issues administering the exams, and problems continued through June, Nye said. Scoring errors and other concerns from educators across the state led Education Commissioner Mike Morath to waive the grade-level promotion requirements tied to STAAR scores for fifth- and eighth-grade students. Nye said staff is still working with TEA to work through resolutions to make sure students receive accurate STAAR results. Based on the issues, FISD Superintendent Jeremy Lyon said TEA has made a commitment that issues of this magnitude do not happen again this upcoming school year. “TEA seems to be back on the process, and this gives us an opportunity to give feedback to TEA,” Nye said. “Right now [TEA] is very aware of some of the issues this has caused and more, and they have a better sense of where we are. I feel very confident where we are going forward in terms that we’re going to have a plan going into this next school year.” Preliminary 2016 accountability ratings will be released on Aug. 15. Final accountability ratings will be released in December.