State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness
The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, commonly referred to as its acronym STAAR, is a series of 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, under the close supervision of the Texas Education Agency.
The test was announced because the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills assessment was repealed by Texas Senate Bill 1031 in spring 2007. The bill called for secondary schools 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 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. This process is part of the TAKS to STAAR transition plan. In 2015 the last students had taken the TAKS test, so the first students will graduate with a completed STAAR end of course assessments. However, many policies from the TAKS are still withheld in the STAAR's policies for practical purposes.
Schools that 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 they can only take the TAKS test by ordering from Pearson Education
On March 16, 2020, Governor Greg Abbott waived the STAAR for the 2019–2020 school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. and further closed most schools by the end of spring.
On June 14, 2019 House Bill HB3906 was passed by Governor Greg Abbott for the redesign of the STAAR test and a transition from paper to digital testing.
History
When Senate Bill 1031 was passed in the spring of 2007, it called for the TAKS to be repealed.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.Also to state when in Senate Bill 1031 was passed in the spring of 2007 replacing TAKS to STARR in 2010 and officially passed in 2012. They had replaced the TAKS because it was
too simple and did not have enough challenging questions for students to think critically and get them ready for the next grade, it was too short of a test, and no limit on the test.
On March 16, 2020, Governor Greg Abbott suspended the STAAR for the 2019–20 school year due to school closures from the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Texas. He had done this under his statutory authority as the governor of Texas under the case in the Texas government which is code 418.016 which stated the suspension of annual academic assessment requirements for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.
On April 6, 2021, the Grade 4 Writing, Grade 7 Writing, and English I STAAR tests were postponed due to technical difficulties. Grade 3 math and English STAAR tests were also postponed or simply skipped entirely.
On June 14, 2019 House Bill HB3906 was passed by Governor Greg Abbott for the redesign of the STAAR test and a transition from paper to digital testing.
The STAAR Redesign
The STAAR Redesign was the result of House Bill 3906 passed by the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019. Before the 2021-2022 school year, schools would administer the STAAR test on paper, but the new model would administer the test on a computer-based system instead.House Bill 3261, enacted by the 87th Texas Legislature in 2021, requires state assessments to be administered online by the 2022–2023 school year. This will require most students to test on a computer's lockdown browser, except students taking the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment and students who require accommodations that cannot be provided online.
House Bill 3906 also started a “multiple choice cap,” which requires that no more than 75% of points on a STAAR test can be from multiple choice questions.
Additionally, the STAAR Redesign starts an increase in cross-curricular informational passages. These reference content from other subjects, but a student's knowledge won't affect how they are scored.
Lastly, the STAAR Redesign will make it that RLA tests have reading and writing and include an ECR for every grade level.
Another major change to the STAAR test beginning in 2022 - 2023 was the adoption of automated scoring technology for open ended writing responses. The tools were used to grade extended construction responses submitted by students during Reading Language Arts exams. While TEA has stated that these systems improve scoring efficiency. Education advocates have concerns over fairness and accuracy inability of the algorithms to understand the tests. As a response, TEA clarified that while the AI tools are used as the first pass grader, flagged responses are still manually reviewed by human scorers.
Structure
Note: for grades 4 and 5, a writing STAAR test will sometimes be required as an additional, shorter test where students would be given a professional sheet of paper and they would then be given a certain prompt pre-determined by the district and write an ECRThe 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
Testing procedure
A student will begin the test after instructions scripted by the Texas Education Agency are read aloud by the proctor/Test Administrator. The students have the whole school day or another school day to complete the test. A lunch break or breaks for medical needs may be provided during the test administration, but during this time the students must be monitored to ensure they refrain from talking. Students may take breaks of their own volition, such as to go to the restroom but no additional time is allowed for such breaks. Additionally, restrictions are also placed while going to the restroom in some schools as teachers monitor and take a list on all who are in the restroom and who has gone to the restroom.When the student finishes, the student must remain in their seat quietly. The proctor cannot help a student with the test but can help the student understand the instructions. The proctor is not allowed to access STAAR test content at any time except as mandated by a manual or documented needs of the student. Texas law provides for civil or criminal prosecution of someone divulging test content or student information. Most commonly irregularities are investigated by the school district, reported to the Texas Education Agency, and possibly referred to the Board of Educator Certification which may inscribe, suspend or revoke teaching credentials.
Any electronic devices in a student's possession must be turned off before testing begins. If a student uses a cell phone or other device to cheat or take pictures of test material during the test that student's test scores will be invalidated, and the proctor/Test Administrator of the student may have to explain how the irregularity occurred in a report to the Texas Education Agency. The proctor or student may face legal trouble as state law requires that the contents of the test are the property of the state and that each student's personal information and test performance are protected for use only by those involved in the student's education.
Versions
The STAAR test has no version for students with modified instruction or receiving instruction through bi-lingual or English-as-a-Second-Language programs. However, students may be provided with accommodations, called designated supports if they are routinely used and meet eligibility guidelines created by the Texas Education Agency. The test is available in paper form or online. The online STAAR has embedded supports available that may not be fully replicated for students testing on paper. There is also an alternative test, the STAAR-Alt2, designed for students with profound cognitive limitations.The digital version of the STAAR test was brought fourth from House Bill 3906 passed by the 86th Texas Legislature, 2019. The STAAR test has been moved to fully online unless the student requires testing accommodations, which then the student would have the option to take the test on paper. However the new online version of the STAAR test has some limitations. First online test's have been proven to show lower test's scores across the board. This does not mean that students who take test's online do not study as hard, rather it's the format that students struggle with. In a study done by AIR they found that students who took the PARCC a Massachusetts scandalized test, online versus paper performed as if they had five fewer months of academic preparation in the math sections and 11 fewer months in the English section.