Commissioner of Education Robert Scott announced Tuesday during the TASA Midwinter School Administrators Conference in Austin that the next generation of student tests will be called the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness or STAAR.
STAAR will replace the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), which is the statewide criterion-reference assessment program that has been in place since 2003.
The STAAR name, pronounced the same as star, will be used for the 12 end-of-course assessments mandated by SB 1031 in 2007 and the new grade 3-8 assessments mandated by HB 3 in the 2009 legislative session.
The new tests will be used beginning in the 2011-2012 school year. Students in the graduating Class of 2015, who are currently in seventh grade, will be the first students who must meet the end-of-course testing requirements, as well as pass their classes, in order to earn a diploma.
The new tests will be significantly more rigorous than current state assessments and will measure a child’s performance, as well as academic growth.
The STAAR for 3-8 reading and mathematics, by law, must be linked from grade to grade to performance expectations for the English III and Algebra II end-of-course assessments. These two assessments are the graduation standards.
During a speech at the Midwinter Conference, Scott also said the last TAKS-based school accountability ratings will be issued in 2011. Ratings will be suspended in 2012 while a new accountability system is phased in. A similar suspension occurred as the TAKS program replaced the TAAS system
The new state rating system will debut in 2013.
During his featured presentation at the conference, Commissioner Scott also announced that he and the Texas Education Agency will begin a significant review of Commissioner’s rules in the Texas Administrative Code (TAC). Although the ability to conduct any kind of review of the Texas Education Code (TEC) rests with the Texas Legislature, Commissioner Scott hopes that the rule review of the Commissioner’s Rules during the next year will help inform his recommendations to the 82nd Legislature, which convenes in less than a year. “I want to hear from you,” Scott stated. “Where they’re not clear, where they’re too restrictive, where they just downright don’t make sense, I’m going to throw them out, and what works we’ll keep.” Three major statewide organizations, the Texas Association of School Administrators, the Texas Association of School Boards, and the Texas Association of School Business Officials, have agreed to assist TEA in this rules review process.
