Testing Overview
There were changes to Texas student assessment for the previous school year. This blog post from ESC13 will examine the known changes as well as some of the things that will not change for the upcoming year
Cambium Assessments, Inc. (CAI) is the state test vendor starting. CAI will handle all of the state testing program (STAAR, STAAR Alternate 2, TELPAS, and TELPAS Alternate). This means that testing personnel will need to learn new processes for all testing activities (ordering, registration, accessing reports, etc.) and students will have a new testing interface for online testing. On the positive side, testing personnel will now have only one system to access for all state testing. They will have to remember only one password and will have the same processes (ordering, registration, etc.) for each assessment. Students will also interact with the same user interface for all state tests.
Pearson will still be involved in the state testing program but in an entirely behind-the-scenes role. Pearson will help develop test items and build test forms. ETS will no longer have a role in the Texas Assessment Program.
The Texas Assessment Program has been streamlined. The stand-alone grades 4 & 7 writing STAAR assessments have been eliminated, as have the optional Algebra II and English III EOCs. These tests will no longer be provided by TEA.
HB 4545 eliminated the automatic retention of students in grades 5 & 8 based on their reading or math STAAR test results. Because of this, the retesting of grades 5 & 8 reading and math STAAR assessments has been discontinued. All grades 3-8 STAAR testing will now occur only in May.
STAAR online tutorials, practice tests, and operational assessments are available through the STAAR Online Testing Platform. The tutorials and practice tests are available to help students familiarize themselves with the online testing environment and embedded tools. Any students taking an online test are strongly encouraged to complete the tutorials and practice tests prior to taking the assessment.
The STAAR Online Testing Platform operates through a secure browser that must be installed on a desktop or tablet to access the tutorials.
Visit our Texas Assessment Website
Practice test directions for students and parents
The STAAR redesign is a result of House Bill (HB) 3906 passed by the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019. The Texas Education Agency (TEA), working with a wide range of education stakeholders, including the Assessment Education Advisory Committee, has been exploring the most instructionally supportive approach to implementing these changes. The redesign will be implemented in the state summative assessments administered in the 2022–2023 school year.
The STAAR redesign includes several components:
- Online Testing and Accommodations
- New Question Types
- Cross-curricular Passages
- Evidence-based Writing
For more information about how the STAAR redesign improves alignment to the classroom experience, hear what teachers are saying, reference the STAAR Redesign February 2022 Presentation (PDF, posted 3/7/22), or see below for more information about each component. For answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ), please reference the STAAR Redesign FAQ (PDF, posted 6/02/22).
TEA STAAR Resources
STAAR Parent Checklist
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) releases two types of test questions for the STAAR program: sample questions and test forms.
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Sample Test Questions are small subsets of test questions released from the STAAR test banks. These test questions may have been previously administered.
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A Test Form is a set of released test questions previously administered together to Texas students, which reflects the STAAR test blueprints.