In 2019, the 86th Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 3906 directing the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to redesign the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). ATPE supported the legislation, which reduced state-mandated tests by eliminating the grade 4 and 7 writing tests and established an educator-involved pilot to replace the STAAR.

TEA has been sharing updates on the STAAR redesign, including a recent presentation by Commissioner of Education Mike Morath to the House Committee on Public Education. At the same August 2022 hearing, ATPE submitted written testimony on the STAAR redesign and other testing-related issues being studied by the committee.

The redesigned STAAR will be implemented during the 2022-23 school year and includes four components:

• Online administration for nearly all students, with accommodations for students with special needs;
• New non-multiple-choice question types;
• The use of cross-curricular passages; and
• Evidence-based writing.

According to TEA, the new question types were developed with input from teachers, students, and a wide range of educational stakeholders and assessment experts. TEA field-tested the new question types during 2022 to verify their ability to accurately and reliably measure students’ understanding of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).

On TEA’s STAAR redesign webpage, you can see preliminary blueprints that show how each test will be constructed with the addition of new question types. Final blueprints and other educator resources will be available by early September. TEA advises that teachers can help students become familiar with the online testing platform using optional Beginning-of-Year assessments, STAAR Interim assessments, tests created using Texas Formative Assessment Resource (TFAR), and select tests from other instructional materials that have been added to the online platform. Practice tests are also available so educators, parents, and students can become familiar with the accessibility and accommodation features.

Learn more about the STAAR redesign from TEA here.