Cedar Park - Leander Edition | August 2022

EDUCATION 2022 statewide STAAR scores recover since start of pandemic

STAAR STUDENT PARTICIPATION BY YEARS The number of students taking the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness rose from 2021-22. Testing was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic.

96%

2019

87%

2021

BY HANNAH NORTON

in mathematics, the improvements our students have made in reading are clear.” Disparities persist between groups Lower-income students tend to have more trouble meeting expecta- tions for their grade levels, according to the data shared by TEA. Roughly 30% and 41% of low-in- come students met or exceeded expectations in math and reading, respectively. Higher-income students performed better, with 55% meeting or exceeding expectations in math and 67% in reading. Among racial and ethnic groups, more Asian students met or exceeded expectations than other groups in both reading and language arts with 81% and math with 77%. African American students had the lowest scores on average, with 40% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in reading and language arts, and 25% in math. House Bill 4545 was adopted in 2021 to provide support for students who do not pass the STAAR tests. The bill requires that students have the opportunity to receive 30 hours of targeted instruction for any STAAR subjects they failed. The STAAR exams will be entirely online by spring 2023, as required by House Bill 3906. The overall assessment process will also undergo changes for the 2022-23 school year, including more frequent feedback for students and wider instruction that is not based solely on test preparation.

Following a drop in standardized test scores during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas students are beginning to improve in subjects across the board, according to new data released by the Texas Education Agency on July 1. The data breaks down the perfor- mance of students in grades 3-12 who took the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness this spring. Students improved from 2021 in nearly all areas, but test performance was still below prepandemic levels in some subjects. In math, 40% of students met or exceeded the expectations for their grade level in 2022, compared to 35% the previous year. However, 50% of students met or exceeded expecta- tions in 2019. In reading and language arts, 52% of students met or exceeded expec- tations, which was an improvement from both 2021 and 2019. Reading and language arts saw a 4% decline in students who met or exceeded expectations from 2019 to 2021, but that number shot up 9% over the last year, according to TEA data. “The investments that the state is making in reading academies and accelerated instruction are clearly paying dividends for our students, and the results are a testament to the hard work of teachers across our state,” TEA Commissioner Mike Mor- ath said in a news release. “While we still have much work to do to recover from COVID[-19]-related learning loss

98%

2022

CATCHING UP Reading and language arts recovered ahead of math after the peak of the pandemic. Below is a collective comparison of data for grades 3-12.

Percent of students that met grade level or above

MATH Down 10% from prepandemic €gures

2019 50%

2021 35%

2022 40%

READING Up 5% from prepandemic €gures

2019 47%

2021 43%

2022 52%

IDENTIFYING GAPS Data from 2022 testing shows disparities in scores for both economically disadvantaged students and students of color.

In both subject areas, Asian students performed the best, followed by white, Emergent bilingual and special education students showed similar trends to the overall results.

Language arts

Math

Nondisadvantaged students that met grade level or above Disadvantaged students that met grade level or above

55%

67%

Hispanic and African American students.

30%

41%

Data from 2018-19 to 2021-22 showed student improvement with the help of accelerated instruction.

SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY‚ COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

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