CALCULATING ACCOUNTABILITY The Texas Education Agency provides annual academic accountability ratings to its public school districts, individual campuses and charter schools for three areas across several factors, including STAAR scores.
New format STAAR exams are designed to measure student progress in reading, math, science, social studies and writing—a goal that hasn’t changed with the online format, TEA officials said. “Assessments provide teachers and parents with helpful information to see how individual students are performing so they can better support those stu- dents moving forward,” the TEA spokesperson said. In addition to being online, the new STAAR test features a maximum of 75% multiple choice ques- tions while the remaining portion consists of 14 question types. The new question types have stu- dents perform tasks such as plotting points on a graph, selecting a point on a map or typing in the missing portion of an equation, according to the TEA’s website. For reading passage test questions, students may need to use knowledge from subjects outside of the one they are being tested for. This choice was made to align the test with educators’ efforts, according to the TEA. “The redesign better aligns STAAR with educator efforts to build students’ background knowledge,” the TEA spokesperson said. “Knowledge is essential for success as learners and critical thinkers.” Essays on language arts STAAR tests will now be based on a reading passage instead of an indepen- dent writing prompt, according to the TEA’s website. Reading and writing tests have also been combined into one test, which impacts grades four and seven. Roane noted several benefits associated with the new format. “Newly redesigned items align better with quality instructional practices and authentic classroom assessment,” Roane said. “These new items and available tools are more interactive than multiple- choice questions.” However, Roane said the new format has pre- sented challenges for students who test more slowly than others. “Likely due to the new item types, some students have taken more time than anticipated to complete their online STAAR tests this spring,” Roane said. “Even though they are allowed to use the full school day—about 8 hours—to test, some aren’t finishing.” Pushing for change Under the TEA’s current accountability system, ratings are determined by student STAAR scores,
2021-22 accountability rating scores:
Humble ISD
New Caney ISD
Scores are tallied for three areas.
1
School progress Reflects students’ performance over time and how a school’s performance compares to other schools with similar economically disadvantaged student populations
Closing the gaps Reflects how well a school or district is ensuring all student groups are successful
Student achievement Reflects students’ scores on STAAR exams, graduation rates, and college, career and military readiness
83
81
82
87
81
76
Take the higher score.
2
Student achievement score: 83 x 70% + Closing the gaps score: 81 x 30% = 82.4
School progress score: 87 x 70% + Closing the gaps score: 76 x 30% = 83.7
The higher score of either “student achievement” or “school progress” accounts for 70% of the total score, while “closing the gaps” accounts for 30%.
30% closing the gaps
70% student achievement or school progress
Round the total.
82.4 rounds to an overall score of 82 83.7 rounds to an overall score of 84
3
Round the total score to a whole number to determine the overall ranking.
A = 90-100 B = 80-89 C = 70-79 Not Rated = 0-69
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
were not rated due to the coronavirus pandemic, but intervention resumed in the 2021-22 school year. Multiple bills in the ongoing 88th Legislature seek to change the role STAAR plays in district account- ability scores. Bob Popinski, senior director of policy for public education advocacy group Raise Your Hand Texas, said he believes STAAR should be de-emphasized as an accountability metric. “We believe in good assessments, formative assessments that help inform instruction through- out the school year,” Popinski said. “The STAAR test, as it stands today, is not one of those types of tests. It’s a one-day test [taken] on one day, and it’s just a snapshot in time.”
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“High school graduation remains contingent on passing STAAR, and campus and district [account- ability] ratings are still overwhelmingly a reflection of STAAR, which is performance by students on just one day,” Roane said. “We would like to see legis- lators continue to remove the emphasis on high- stakes testing.” The TEA is typically required, under state law, to conduct interventions—requirements for districts to provide staff and resources to lower performing campuses—with schools that receive “not rated” scores, or ratings lower than a C. Exceptions were made for the 2020-21 school year, when schools
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