Texas students take redesigned STAAR test

Test Season

The STAAR test looks different this year for students.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) said that the test was redesigned to make it more closely aligned with classroom instruction. Under House Bill 3906, passed by the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019, TEA has been exploring the “most instructionally supportive approach” to implementing the changes that went into effect this school year.

Several components are involved in the redesign:

• Online testing and accommodations: HB 3261, enacted by the 87th Texas Legislature in 2021, requires state assessments to be administered online by the 2022–2023 school year. Online administration allows students to receive accommodations like those they get in the classroom, provides faster test results, improves test operations and allows new non-multiple-choice questions, according to TEA. This transition will require nearly all students to be assessed online, with the exceptions of students taking the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment and students who require accommodations that cannot be provided online.

• New question types: House Bill 3906 established a “multiple choice cap,” meaning that no more than 75% of points on a STAAR test can be based on multiple choice questions.

• Cross-curricular passages: More cross-curricular informational passages that reference content aligned to the TEKS for other subject areas (e.g., social studies, science, mathematics, fine arts, etc.) will be on the test. While the cross-curricular passages on the reading language arts (RLA) test will include topics from other subject areas, the questions will only assess RLA TEKS; students will not be scored on their understanding of TEKS for other subject areas, according to TEA.

• Evidence-based writing: RLA assessments will assess both reading and writing (grades 3–8 English, grades 3–5 Spanish and English I and II End-of-Course) and will include new question types and an extended constructed response, or essay, at every grade level. The essay component will shift from a standalone prompt to writing in response to a reading selection. Students will write in one of three possible modes: informational, argumentative or correspondence and will be scored using a 5-point rubric, which includes idea development and language conventions.

“We've heard really positive feedback from our teachers who have helped pilot the items. And in general, the more teachers I've interacted with the new item types, the more positive feedback we've heard from them,” said Lily Laux, deputy commissioner of school programs for TEA. “So, math teachers actually can be a pretty excitable bunch and math teachers seeing that students can actually graph on the new assessment is something that we've gotten really positive comments about … But teachers who have spent time sort of engaging with the redesign have generally been pleased.”

Laux said that in previous years, school districts had a choice whether to take the test online or on paper and especially with COVID-19, several districts decided to move to online administration. Nearly 80% of school districts voluntarily chose to test online last spring, but this year is the first that the STAAR test moving online is required (except for the students who have specific accommodations).

Hays CISD secondary campuses tested all online for the last two school years and several other elementary campuses tested online last year.

“Because of this, we feel our district is ahead of many other districts across the state and region," said Kevin Malandruccolo, director of assessment and accountability for Hays CISD. “With STAAR being redesigned, we are finding that the test is finally being changed to more closely match how our teachers are assessing students in their daily routines. In addition, we have also promoted building strong writers in all grade levels, but with the changes to Reading STAAR, our students will now be able to show off those writing skills. With all the practice we have done with online testing using new item types, etc., we feel our students will be ready for the redesigned STAAR assessment.”

Wimberley ISD said it's proud of how hard students and staff have been working to prepare for the redesigned test and is confident that students have shown academic growth on the tests administered locally.

But WISD Communications Director Allen Bruggman understands that there will be an adjustment period and test scores should not be compared to previous years.

“The structure of the test questions, the format of the exams and the new requirement for all tests to be administered online will create a learning curve for our students and teachers. This is not uncommon,” he said. “Historical testing data shows students’ scores systematically decline when the state changes the structure and format of these high-stakes tests. For these reasons, this year’s results should not be compared side-by-side with previous years.”

While TEA has received positive feedback from teachers who helped with the redesign, some parents are still left concerned for students.

“Tests that arbitrarily restrict access to resources (both tools, like calculators, and people, like peers) are not accurate assessments of what children know to begin with, they’re sorting devices made for some to do better and some to do worse,” said Lora Delgado, a former public school teacher.

“They claim they help us disrupt inequities, but because the state does not look at patterns of access across districts to quality teaching, it’s not actually working to that end and we know it. Changing to online-only administration means the test-taking knowledge students need changes. It’s not just about understanding 5th-grade math, it’s understanding how to take a computer-based test. Most of the techniques students learn, like showing work, now need to be done on scratch paper where the question is not available as part of the process. We do not need to test every student [grades] 3-8 every year to determine where to send additional dollars to improve student outcomes,” Delgado added.

Laux said that legislation was passed that removed any student-level consequences for STAAR.

“This is not a high-stakes test, so a student is really able to do their best and it has no consequences for that student,” Laux said. “We are really hopeful that we can get that message out and really help make sure districts, teachers and students, in particular, know to just do their best and not worry about one individual-level action from that, it’s not the intent of the STAAR. In the resources we've published for both districts and families to know that it's a useful data point, but it's not the end all be all. We would never want folks to assume that is somewhat of a test, a summative test is that.”

Delgado believes that the STAAR can still be considered a high-stakes test as students must pass five end-of-course assessments to graduate high school: Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology and U.S. History.

“Students still need to pass the five EOC STAAR assessments to graduate high school, which still makes those exams high stakes — really high stakes. While tests in 3-8 no longer have direct individual consequences, students are absolutely grouped and placed in classes as a result of how they perform on STAAR and have to spend a lot of time each year prepping for and taking them,” she said. “In high school, students who cannot pass algebra cannot continue on to other advanced courses, so there are absolutely consequences to individual students.”

Jamie Fulenwider, a parent of two Texas public school students who had to take the TEKS/STAAR, agrees with making the tests more like daily work in the classroom. But she still has reservations when it comes to standardized assessments.

“As a community, it is our job to be there for kids, to be openly supportive and show we believe in their current and future ability to learn,” Fulenwider said. “We need to let kids know we are behind them every step of the way.  Kids need to know they have the power to say what success means to them and that a test does not define them.”

She also questioned the environment that is created on the test day.

“[It is] controlled and restrictive. In the years my kids were in school, parents could not enter schools on test day.  Students were restricted from moving around the classroom, could not go to the library, could only go to the restroom at designated times, had to eat lunch in the classroom and were not able to take recess/go outside in order to not disturb other test-taking students,” Fulenwider said. “Some campuses put policies in place informing parents their child would not be allowed to leave school early for any reason on test day. If you have a doctor's appointment that had been on the books for months and you could not reschedule because it was a referral with a long wait time, it puts everyone in a bad position, so the best thing to do is stay home. If the school loses out on daily attendance funding, the school has to provide make-up accommodations. Who are the restrictive policies really hurting in the end?”

For more information about the components of the STAAR redesign, visit www.tea.texas.gov/student-assessment/assessment-initiatives/hb-3906/staar-redesign.

The Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch reached out to Dripping Springs ISD for comment and as of press time, the district did not respond.