Deer Park ISD bracing for new STAAR on the horizon
This school year, public school districts in Texas are implementing a new assessment test, replacing the TAKS with the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness.
The Texas Education Agency collaborated with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop the STAAR test in response to requirements set by the Texas Legislature.
"The Legislature felt that the TAKS test had reached a ceiling in evaluating higher performing students and it did not accurately gage how strong those students were in comparison to their peers nationally," said Victor White, assistant superintendent for instruction at DPISD. "In order to deliver a test that will test students at the high end of the performance scale, the STAAR test will be a more difficult test."
Students graduating up until the spring of 2014 will continue to take the TAKS test and must pass the exit-level TAKS to graduate. Beginning with the graduating class of 2015, STAAR results will affect graduation.
While the TAKS test is based on grade assessments, STAAR focuses on individual course assessments. For grades 9-12, the STAAR will consist of 12 end-of-course assessments in Algebra I and II, geometry, biology, chemistry, physics, English I-III, world geography, world history and U.S. history.
"The test will assess student knowledge and understanding in a deeper manner, expecting a demonstration of higher-order thinking skills," White said.
Other differences include the test having a four-hour time limit, as opposed to the untimed TAKS test. The STAAR writing assessments for grades four and seven as well as the STAAR assessments for high school English I-III will be extended to two days and will require students to write two essays addressing different purposes for writing. The math and science assessments for STAAR will have more open-ended questions instead of multiple choice answers.
Those students in ninth grade this school year will begin taking the STAAR tests. For those students, to be able to graduate, they will have to pass the 12 end-of-course assessments.
"The high stakes element of the test begins this year with the ninth grade class as they will be tested on four end-of-course tests that will be part of their graduation requirements," White said.
Students who do not pass an assessment for a course are not required to retake the course in order to retake the test, but the district must provide accelerated instruction to each student who fails.
Because DPISD teaches the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which is required for all subjects in Texas public schools, White said the district has already adapted to the new way of testing.
"We have the TEKS, they are imbedded in our curriculum, and by teaching those elements we are preparing students for the test," White said.
Although the district's current curriculum will help students prepare, White said realistically, it will take several years to fully adapt to the new type of testing.
"The very nature and goal of standardized testing in the state has evolved over time from focusing on minimum skills to expected academic skills to the current program which evaluates college readiness," White said. "This process has always had phase-in periods where districts have had time to adjust instruction to meet the higher level of knowledge and skills demands of each new testing system. That phase-in period has not been granted with the STAAR test."
White said the tests will affect the pacing of the curriculum delivery and how far into the subject the district will teach students.
"The speed at which instruction is provided is vitally important," White said. "The entire curriculum of a course must be covered during the school term since almost all the TEKS could appear on the STAAR test."
The STAAR test has also impacted how the teachers in DPISD assess the information taught in their classroom.
"Because the STAAR test will pose questions on a higher cognitive level, we will use similar verbiage when devising classroom exams," White said.
The STAAR testing will begin March 26 with the final end of course test administered May 18.