Latest news with #STAAR
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Science
- San Francisco Chronicle
Texas' annual reading test adjusted its difficulty every year, masking whether students are improving
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Jeanne Sinclair, Memorial University of Newfoundland (THE CONVERSATION) Texas children's performance on an annual reading test was basically flat from 2012 to 2021, even as the state spent billions of additional dollars on K-12 education. I recently did a peer-reviewed deep dive into the test design documentation to figure out why the reported results weren't showing improvement. I found the flat scores were at least in part by design. According to policies buried in the documentation, the agency administering the tests adjusted their difficulty level every year. As a result, roughly the same share of students failed the test over that decade regardless of how objectively better they performed relative to previous years. From 2008 to 2014, I was a bilingual teacher in Texas. Most of my students' families hailed from Mexico and Central America and were learning English as a new language. I loved seeing my students' progress. Yet, no matter how much they learned, many failed the end-of-year tests in reading, writing and math. My hunch was that these tests were unfair, but I could not explain why. This, among other things, prompted me to pursue a Ph.D. in education to better understand large-scale educational assessment. Ten years later, in 2024, I completed a detailed exploration of Texas's exam, currently known as the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR. I found an unexpected trend: The share of students who correctly answered each test question was extraordinarily steady across years. Where we would expect to see fluctuation from year to year, performance instead appears artificially flat. The STAAR's technical documents reveal that the test is designed much like a norm-referenced test – that is, assessing students relative to their peers, rather than if they meet a fixed standard. In other words, a norm-referenced test cannot tell us if students meet key, fixed criteria or grade-level standards set by the state. In addition, norm-referenced tests are designed so that a certain share of students always fail, because success is gauged by one's position on the 'bell curve' in relation to other students. Following this logic, STAAR developers use practices like omitting easier questions and adjusting scores to cancel out gains due to better teaching. Ultimately, the STAAR tests over this time frame – taken by students every year from grade 3 to grade 8 in language arts and math, and less frequently in science and social studies – were not designed to show improvement. Since the test is designed to keep scores flat, it's impossible to know for sure if a lack of expected learning gains following big increases in per-student spending was because the extra funds failed to improve teaching and learning, or simply because the test hid the improvements. Why it matters Ever since the federal education policy known as No Child Left Behind went into effect in 2002 and tied students' test performance to rewards and sanctions for schools, achievement testing has been a primary driver of public education in the United States. Texas' educational accountability system has been in place since 1980, and it is well known in the state that the stakes and difficulty of Texas' academic readiness tests increase with each new version, which typically come out every five to 10 years. What the Texas public may not know is that the tests have been adjusted each and every year – at the expense of really knowing who should 'pass' or 'fail.' The test's design affects not just students but also schools and communities. High-stakes test scores determine school resources, the state's takeover of school districts and accreditation of teacher education programs. Home values are even driven by local schools' performance on high-stakes tests. Students who are marginalized by racism, poverty or language have historically tended to underperform on standardized tests. STAAR's design makes this problem worse. On May 28, 2025, the Texas Senate passed a bill that would eliminate the STAAR test and replace it with a different norm-referenced test. As best as I can tell, this wouldn't address the problems I uncovered in my research. What still isn't known I plan to investigate if other states or the federal government use similarly designed tests to evaluate students. My deep dive into Texas' test focused on STAAR before its 2022 redevelopment. The latest iteration has changed the test format and question types, but there appears to be little change to the way the test is scored. Without substantive revisions to the scoring calculations 'under the hood' of the STAAR test, it is likely Texas will continue to see flat performance.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Texas Senate approves ending STAAR test, sends bill back to House for approval
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The Texas Senate approved legislation Tuesday night aimed at revising the state's school accountability system and replacing the standardized test with a version meant to reduce anxiety for students. House Bill 4 will now head back to its originating chamber for final approval before going to the Governor's desk. The Senate's version of the bill, authored by State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R – Houston, would prohibit school districts from suing the state to block the A-F accountability ratings in which schools are evaluated. In 2023, more than 100 school districts sued the Texas Education Agency to stop the release of the ratings over anticipated changes in how the scores would be calculated. The bill would also authorize state interventions in school districts that do not comply with the accountability statutes. 'What gets measured gets fixed, but you can't fix what you can't measure,' Bettencourt said in a news release. 'HB 4 ensures accountability ratings are released clearly, fairly, and with purpose to measure performance, report results and help schools improve.' One of the biggest elements of the bill is ending the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR test. There have been complaints on both sides of the aisle that the STAAR test is forcing schools to teach kids for the test and not teaching them the curriculum, on top of creating high anxiety on students taking the exam. Instead, schools would switch to a three-test model that is spaced throughout the year. Students would take a national norm-referenced assessment at the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and the end of the year. It will give teachers immediate results on testing to see how students are progressing throughout the year. The current STAAR testing model does not provide testing results until the summer when students are out of school away from their teachers. Educators have complained the results come too late to help a student improve while they are in the classroom. Unlike the version the House passed earlier this month, the Senate's version would eliminate the STAAR test in the upcoming 2025-2026 school year. The STAAR elimination and replacement would be phased-in over the next three years, giving time to run pilot programs and train teachers. The House will have to approve the changes before it can go to the Governor's desk for signature. Sen. Bettencourt was asked if the House members who worked on the original bill were happy with the changes. Bettencourt said they like the new version. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas' annual reading test adjusted its difficulty every year, masking whether students are improving
Texas children's performance on an annual reading test was basically flat from 2012 to 2021, even as the state spent billions of additional dollars on K-12 education. I recently did a peer-reviewed deep dive into the test design documentation to figure out why the reported results weren't showing improvement. I found the flat scores were at least in part by design. According to policies buried in the documentation, the agency administering the tests adjusted their difficulty level every year. As a result, roughly the same share of students failed the test over that decade regardless of how objectively better they performed relative to previous years. From 2008 to 2014, I was a bilingual teacher in Texas. Most of my students' families hailed from Mexico and Central America and were learning English as a new language. I loved seeing my students' progress. Yet, no matter how much they learned, many failed the end-of-year tests in reading, writing and math. My hunch was that these tests were unfair, but I could not explain why. This, among other things, prompted me to pursue a Ph.D. in education to better understand large-scale educational assessment. Ten years later, in 2024, I completed a detailed exploration of Texas's exam, currently known as the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR. I found an unexpected trend: The share of students who correctly answered each test question was extraordinarily steady across years. Where we would expect to see fluctuation from year to year, performance instead appears artificially flat. The STAAR's technical documents reveal that the test is designed much like a norm-referenced test – that is, assessing students relative to their peers, rather than if they meet a fixed standard. In other words, a norm-referenced test cannot tell us if students meet key, fixed criteria or grade-level standards set by the state. In addition, norm-referenced tests are designed so that a certain share of students always fail, because success is gauged by one's position on the 'bell curve' in relation to other students. Following this logic, STAAR developers use practices like omitting easier questions and adjusting scores to cancel out gains due to better teaching. Ultimately, the STAAR tests over this time frame – taken by students every year from grade 3 to grade 8 in language arts and math, and less frequently in science and social studies – were not designed to show improvement. Since the test is designed to keep scores flat, it's impossible to know for sure if a lack of expected learning gains following big increases in per-student spending was because the extra funds failed to improve teaching and learning, or simply because the test hid the improvements. Ever since the federal education policy known as No Child Left Behind went into effect in 2002 and tied students' test performance to rewards and sanctions for schools, achievement testing has been a primary driver of public education in the United States. Texas' educational accountability system has been in place since 1980, and it is well known in the state that the stakes and difficulty of Texas' academic readiness tests increase with each new version, which typically come out every five to 10 years. What the Texas public may not know is that the tests have been adjusted each and every year – at the expense of really knowing who should 'pass' or 'fail.' The test's design affects not just students but also schools and communities. High-stakes test scores determine school resources, the state's takeover of school districts and accreditation of teacher education programs. Home values are even driven by local schools' performance on high-stakes tests. Students who are marginalized by racism, poverty or language have historically tended to underperform on standardized tests. STAAR's design makes this problem worse. I plan to investigate if other states or the federal government use similarly designed tests to evaluate students. My deep dive into Texas' test focused on STAAR before its 2022 redevelopment. The latest iteration has changed the test format and question types, but there appears to be little change to the way the test is scored. Without substantive revisions to the scoring calculations 'under the hood' of the STAAR test, it is likely Texas will continue to see flat performance. The Texas Education Agency, which administers the STAAR tests, didn't respond to a request for comment. The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Jeanne Sinclair, Memorial University of Newfoundland Read more: How going back to the SAT could set back college student diversity Students' test scores tell us more about the community they live in than what they know Is your child taking a test? When is the right time? Jeanne Sinclair receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas Senate gives preliminary OK to House Bill 2
May 23—AUSTIN — The Texas Senate has given preliminary approval to House Bill 2 to fund public schools and raise teacher and staff pay, according to a Facebook post from State Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa. HB 2, which Landgraf co-authored, is an $8.5 billion increase in funding for Texas public schools, and it has been this year's legislative priority for the Texas House. The Senate has to vote on final passage May 23. "I'm proud to support it, and am grateful that the Senate has now passed it. This is an investment in our students, and by extension the future of Texas. Teachers need pay raises, and this provides $4.2 billion into teachers' pockets," Landgraf said in the post. For those who had concerns about education savings accounts, this is the pro-public education counterbalance to that, he wrote. "I look forward to one more vote to send HB 2 to the governor's desk. This record-breaking funding, combined with scrapping the STAAR exam, would make this the best legislative session for Texas public schools in my lifetime. I'm ready to make it happen, and Texas students, teachers and parents deserve nothing less," he said. Details included in the new version of HB 2 are: — $8.5 billion in new funding, the largest single increase in public education funding in Texas history. — $4.2 billion for record permanent teacher and staff pay raises. — $1.3 billion in Allotment for Basic Costs (ABC) to assist districts with expenses like insurance, utilities, and TRS contributions. — $2 billion to update special education formulas and fund full-day pre-K, early learning interventions, and Career & Technical Education (CTE). — $430 million for school safety. Under the new law, Ector County ISD would gain $21,456,765 in fiscal year 2026, information from Landgraf said. In fiscal year 2027, it would gain $25, 241,964. Dallas Kennedy, a special education teacher at the Transition Learning Center, said Thursday he was glad to see that they provided money for raises for all staff. He added that $4.2 billion was allotted for teacher raises and another $500 million for all other staff. "While selfishly I loved the idea of getting a raise, I was more worried about the bus drivers and paraprofessionals getting raises," Kennedy said. He added that ECISD "has done a great job stretching every penny they had, but they were out of pennies to stretch. Hopefully this bill will help the district balance it's budget."
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate panel begins negotiations with the House over how to scrap the STAAR test
A Senate panel early Friday unveiled its rewrite of the House bill that would scrap STAAR, the state standardized test widely criticized for taking instructional time away from teachers and putting pressure on students. The Senate changes kick off formal negotiations with the lower chamber as the clock is running out on the legislative session. The Senate Education Committee's rewrite reflects a gap in what the two chambers want to see out of the new state assessment — and the A-F accountability ratings that are largely calculated based on assessment results. House Bill 4 would swap the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test for a shorter test that aims to better support student learning. Students would be tested at the beginning, middle and end of the year to monitor their progress. 'By the time we get to a shorter end-of-year test, we are not concentrating this into a high-stakes anxiety game that basically has teachers and students walking a tightrope,' said Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the Houston Republican sponsoring the bill. 'I know there'll be more of this coming out of my House counterparts as we move this bill on.' The Senate amendments to the legislation absorbs much of the language from Senate Bill 1962, the Senate's own bill on testing and accountability. The House had started the session with much of that language but moved away from it after public testimony and closed-door meetings with school leaders. The House wants to grade Texas students by comparing their performance to their peers around the country in what is called a 'norm-referenced test.' Proponents of this kind of test say it allows students and their families to get results back faster. The Senate panel does not specify what grading would look like, which would allow the state to continue a rigid scale to track students' academic performance. The House also eliminated a mandatory standardized test on social studies, while the Senate chose to retain it. Students' STAAR performance is a key metric in the state's ratings of school districts and school campuses, which are graded on an A-F scale each year. School performance ratings were held up in court because of two consecutive years with lawsuits. The House's bill also left an avenue for districts to sue to challenge the Texas Education Agency in the future, but set up a fast-track court process so those lawsuits do not halt the release of the ratings. The Senate's bill, meanwhile, doubled down on discouraging schools from taking legal action again. It gives the TEA commissioner, for example, the option to appoint a conservator to districts that initiate a lawsuit. Bettencourt has repeatedly slammed districts who joined the lawsuits over the A-F ratings in the past, calling the action 'lawfare.' The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
