STAAR: What do we notice?

ELA STAAR – What we noticed Figure 19 Text complexity Read like a writer (author’s purpose & craft) Textual evidence Students must be able to identify the “tools” an author uses to craft a piece and to pinpoint/arti culate how they affect meaning. Students must be able to make connections —at differing levels of depth and complexity —both within and across texts (including connections between a text and its accompanyi ng photograph or procedural piece

Instructional Implications: ELA Close reading Make connections across different texts Short texts Academic Vocabulary Text evidence Responsiveness to writing prompt Students must be able to make connections —at differing levels of depth and complexity —both within and across texts (including connections between a text and its accompanyi ng photograph or procedural piece). Students must have a command of and be able to apply the specific academic vocabulary associated with literary and informational reading. Student must know how to find and use text evidence to confirm the validity of an idea both within and across texts. To be successful on STAAR (and in class), students must be able to read on-grade-level texts of varying complexities. That requires learning to independently “tackle”— or negotiate—increasingly complex literary and informational texts. The degree to which the vocabulary or language used is nonliteral/figurative, abstract, academic, or technical. The degree to which the sentence structures used are varied, dense, and sophisticated. The degree to which the author’s use of literary elements/devices, rhetorical strategies, organizational patterns, and text features is nuanced or sophisticated. The degree to which the topic or content is unfamiliar or cognitively demanding. The degree to which relationships among ideas require interpretation, reasoning, and inferential thinking to understand the subtlety, nuances, and depth of ideas.

Instructional Implications: Math Upon closer observation what we noticed. Very simple the SEs are still being tested as stated but infused with more of the Processes and Tools standards.

2009 6th grade TAKS 6.7A The student is expected to locate and name points on a coordinate plane using ordered pairs of non-negative rational numbers.

2013 6th grade STAAR Same SE but you have to move the point. So glad the actual point W is not a distractor. (525, 350) Answer is B

2006 9th grade TAKS A.B1 E  interpret and make decisions, predictions, and critical judgments from functional relationships. Answer is q

2013 Algebra 1 EOC No picture, lots of reading… have to really think and use the information given. Although STAAR is still testing math content, the way they are asking the questions is quite different. Show a TEKS question and a STAAR question. What’s the same/different? Dissect a released question to see the multiple standards that are being tested. STAAR questions are the target. Don’t eliminate the good teaching that leads to the acquisition of the target. Use STAAR questions as a guide to create questions that access at the skill at the same level. Don’t use the question over and over again. Can’t be someone doing the work for teachers and giving it to them. Just like students, teachers need ownership of their own learning.

Science STAAR – What we noticed   Reading level Elaborate and extend Process skills applied across all strands

Grade 5 Science STAAR 2013

Grade 8 Science STAAR 2013

Instructional Implications: Science You can't teach all the examples You should model things in several ways 3-5 and 6-8 teachers need to understand vertical alignment and how content can be spiraled with connections Are our teacher-created assessments as rigorous as STAAR?

Social Studies STAAR – What we noticed Broad vocabulary of questions, answer choices and primary sources Variety of source incorporation: primary source text excerpts and illustrations, maps, graphs and charts U.S. History EOC appeared to have a greater integration of images and text excerpts in comparison to the Grade 8 STAAR Dual-Coding outcomes: 42% Grade 8 50% U.S. History EOC State data: males outscored females in every reporting category for Grade 8 and U.S. History

Instructional Implications: Social Studies Address vocabulary of assessment and content Incorporation of a variety of primary and secondary sources in instruction at every grade level *Analyze sources and draw conclusions *Marriage of content and process skills Awareness of gender-biased practices