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House Public Education met on August 9 to hear invited and public testimony over the following interim charges and the committee first heard comments from the TEA Commissioner Mike Morath:

  • HB 3906 (86R), relating to the assessment of public school students, including the development and administration of assessment instruments, and technology permitted for use by students; and
  • Study the unfulfilled recommendations from the 2016 Commission on Next Generation Assessments and Accountability. Evaluate the state’s progress on assessments and accountability and consider possible legislation to support the recommendations from the report. Study and recommend measures needed at the state level to prevent unintended consequences to students, campuses, and districts, including changes that could improve the system for students or help public schools serving a disproportionate number of educationally disadvantaged students impacted by the pandemic.

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath

  • Different types of assessments serve different purposes
    • Summative vs formative assessments
    • Summative useful when planning longer intervention supports
    • Summative useful to determine efficacy of planning
    • If you use a summative test for purpose other than what it is for is problematic
  • STAAR has been proven to be viable, reliable and aligned to TEKS with passage readability on grade level
  • HB 3906 was intended to improve instructional alignment; measuring whether students have learned a concept well isn’t the same thing as teaching it well
    • Don’t use same approach to measure teaching as measuring mastery
    • Is it possible for summative assessments to be designed so that it is better aligned with strong instructional practices? This is what they have spend time working on
  • Redesign of STAAR is scheduled to take place this school year, also a longer set of changes to pilot a through year concept (several tests throughout the year vs one large test)
  • Redesign Phase 1: strong instructional practices looks like building background coherently, it is NOT reading a bunch of short passages back to back; does assessment encourage you to build on strong instructional practices
    • Includes adjusting and accommodating to meet needs of specific students
    • Phase 1 redesign means all passage will be cross curricular linked
    • Reading will not be done in isolation, not just multiple choice but rather open ended
    • Goal is to make strong instructional choices when reviewing the assessment
    • This will happen in goal of HB 3906 with online
  • 92% of educators agree the new style of questions will allow students to show their knowledge
    • A certain percentage of educators also believe it will help them with instructional planning
  • Heard these are good changes from Superintendents from across the state
  • Also built our formative and interim resources tools on their site, these are optional
  • Phase 1 will be complete this school year
  • Next phase is piloting (R&D) on a substantive wholistic change on assessment, a way to have “baby tests” administered over the course of the year
  • No state has actually done this yet, piloting about 7-10k kids
  • Need to make design decisions that are trade off, shared some of the design examples based on current direction
    • How adaptive do you make the assessment?
    • Morath explains the concepts behind adaptive assessments, it could be fully adaptive at the item level or make it multi-stages
    • Advisory group landed on multi-stage adaptive because you can make the test shorter (it is not item level which would have provided detailed diagnostic per student but could not have released all questions at state level)
    • Curricular aligned vs full scope?
    • Group went with curricular aligned for now
  • Texas, Nebraska, Florida chart shown comparing through-year assessments
    • Walked through the various differences
  • The Commission made 9 recommendations that have been largely addressed
  • Things to put on radar to consider what to do next:
    • Option A: Stay course in post HB 3906
    • Option B: Upgrade R&D and do item level computer adaptive (it is expensive)
    • Option C: multi-stage adaptive if you want to make it operational will need funding
  • Meza – moving away from multiple choice
    • Moving away, the more the assessment resembles instruction the better
  • Meza – STAAR is given orally in Spanish?
    • No, are specific automated language accommodations; 3-5 grade tests are built in Spanish for both reading and math
  • Morath overviews three types of accommodations accessibility, content-specific, and student-specific tools; are more robust in the redesigned STAAR
  • Allen – Staff development for teachers? Do not want them going in blind
    • Have rolled out training resources for districts; would need appropriations support to do direct teacher training
  • Huberty – Could you get more in depth on the readability of passages and lexile scores
    • Conducted a study with UT 91% of passages were within expected grade level bands
    • “Early passage review” as an edit check in passage development to get to 100%
  • Huberty – How ensure this is accurately graded?
    • Are two trained graders for open ended responses; are monitored so they stay in calibration
  • Huberty and Morath discussed superintendent feedback; most was neutral or positive, the ones that were negative do not approve of statewide testing overall
  • Huberty – Asks about federal requirements
    • Close to federal minimum requirements on assessments; only three tests are above minimum: 8th grade social studies test, 11th grade U.S. history test, English II
  • Huberty – Was a test last session that aimed to get rid of statewide test, but are federal requirements that we need to meet anyway
  • Huberty – Support formative testing; TEKS is about building upon what we learn, concerned about the lag of testing after you learn the material
    • Piloting the 3 year tests; some value to the lag because it displays long-term memory
    • Are doing a full sequence assessment in October and then in February; is value in measuring learning growth between the two
    • Curriculum requirement is a big policy question for us; are having these discussions
  • Huberty – Asks about HB 22 and its changes to local control and the accountability system
    • Aimed to create reliability measure of extracurricular participation; is a policy decision if you add to the reliability system
    • Owe the legislature a report by December of this year; were disrupted by COVID
    • Another provision concerning A-F – 50% weight can be local factors; very few districts have done this successfully
  • Huberty – Would love to see those provisions implemented
  • Huberty – Policy question is why we cap on technology at 25%; notes the cap could have been in place due to the textbook lobby; support removing that?
    • Kids still need tangible reading material; logistically 87% kids in spring were tested online
  • Huberty – Have to single out technology now in bonds; failure rate for bonds was 50%; how are we going to move forward?
    • Either increase investment $250m instructional materials allocation each funding cycle or districts would find it; could re-split the IMA
  • M. González – Asks about appropriations requests
    • $8-10m comprehensive formative assessment system; one time, may be some sustained costs annually
    • Depending on next phase of the bill anywhere from $50-20m; $35m for agency work
    • Could get the legislature a cost for what direct teacher training would cost
  • M. González – Difference between pilot and a system where educators can submit a sample?
    • System would be more expensive, but could be done; could have miscalibration issues
  • M. González – Summative score to the federal government?
    • Piloting getting average of the three scores; would be the first state to do this successfully
  • Buckley – Testing kids on things they do not know is there actually a benefit there? Want local control, but seems like we could create assessments that would match better to curricula
    • Changing testing would be a very significant policy change; would need significant appropriations to pull this off
    • State has largely eliminated consequences of the state tests for students; pressure could come from the district regarding the accountability system
  • Buckley – Any data that shows outcomes based on scope and sequence?
    • Between 4k – 6k campuses follow the same scope and sequence; are testing science, math and social studies; are not even testing on RLA
  • C. Bell – Formative assessment system already created concerned only 154k of those test
    • Is in its first year, as we add more items, will be used more regularly
  • C. Bell – Think more involvement in the pilot will incentivize more districts to get involved?
    • Do not know if the growth of the pilot would get districts involved TFAR; need item bank to reflect curricular interests
  • C. Bell – $15-30m for formative to replace STAAR; items would be transparent for parents?
    • Are three choices, item “c” aims to be transparent yes
  • Dutton – What impact STAAR redesign have an impact on curriculum?
    • Teachers have reported it will affect instructional planning; could have an effect on core curricular selection
    • Would be a “feature” not a “bug” want to see curricular vigor increased
  • Dutton – If that does not happen, what is the effect on STAAR?
    • Would still be accurate and reliable; some will continue to like/dislike it
  • Meza – Not all school districts get the same texts; complicates aligning curriculum with tests?
    • Received testimony that said that, question is how to improve instructional materials
  • Talarico – Connection with role of technology moving forward?
    • Only mathematics blended learning tools are very successful; running studies on crossover with summative assessments
    • Could make summative assessments mostly go away; would still have some
  • Talarico – Should put more focus on R&D?
    • If you want to make such changes, HB 3 has added blended learning program to nurture this type of learning; could do more
  • Bernal – How can we figure this out to make IMA money go further to be more flexible and responsive
    • Morath wonders how you would do it because it’s a market driven system; says you can’t make someone sell something different, but he understands the point
  • M. González asks about equity in HB3906 and special education moving some systems completely online; mentions huge technological gap; asks about testing not on background knowledge but skills
    • Law makes sure the nature of diverse learning needs are integrated from onset into assessment systems; seeing more equitable access to testing systems through online tools for many reasons, such as diversity of local administrators
    • What about ELLs? Same thing
    • One of most important questions in public education- there is no reading assessment not based on background knowledge; now trying to choose passages for TEKS they’ve already been exposed to in school; ensures equitable approach to assessment as long as TEKS were covered and sends message to teachers that social studies is important; decoding plus language comprehension equals reading

Panel 1

Nikole Foote, District Testing Coordinator Dumas ISD

  • Very familiar with different versions of testing over the years
  • District has been all in on online testing at high school for many years now
  • TTAP was exciting and good opportunity for teachers to real-time assess what’s happening with students; pilot will bring some good data; rigorous and helps teachers keep high standards; aligns with teaching practices
  • TFAR has been used a bit to help teachers
  • Pilot assessment before Thanksgiving and in January can be done in a class hour, excited about it

Jean Chambers, Pflugerville ISD, Biology Teacher

  • STAAR testing: reviewed 300 STAAR testing items over 3 days with 10-15 educators; looked through clusters of questions then met as a group to discuss what they didn’t like about questions (was it biased, aligned to TEKS, clear and concise, etc.)
  • Eye opening experience and made her look at test questions in a new light; helped her to see how she can beef up her teaching
  • Trained on item types for how to write questions for 8th graders; got to collaborate with others about how to teach them in the classroom
  • New item design will help students and increase rigor; life isn’t multiple choice; they need to articulate their answer to express knowledge; more visual as well

Julietta Arredondo, Socorro ISD

  • Took part in TEA focus group to compare question types for assessment for instruction planning process and potential impacts, resources needed, PD, etc.
  • 2017-2019 and 2021 participated in STAAR review committees and wrote/revised questions, especially on Spanish assessment; gotten a new perspective each time on how to align vertically
  • Found that many new item type questions that are open ended, creating graphs, writing, current events that help to assess students in new ways; sees herself as a better educator for being part of this process

Q&A Panel 1

  • M. González asks about teacher shortage issues and how she can learn from their experiences to address it given these teachers’ positive experiences in this process
    • Chambers says training and PD is huge for a new teacher, the better trained they are the better they do and the longer they stay in the profession
    • Foote says she’s interested in pilot because she wasn’t sure how to use the data but now, they’ll get the training to do so
    • Arredondo says training is key, first year teachers don’t know what they don’t know
    • Rep. also asks if there are changes to policies or processes that they should be aware of? Not that they can think of
  • Rep. Buckley asks Ms. Chambers about recommendations for how to bring back increased rigor level message to her campus and district
    • She started talking about is last summer since district hadn’t; this year doing a summer PD to help building understanding and expectations; teachers need more exposure to what’s going on at their level
  • Rep. Bell commends teachers for their additional work to help them know if they’re doing the right thing as policymakers
  • Rep. Talarico asks Foote how the pilot will look different from testing regime as usual
    • Not much different except 3 times a year and more data; gives bigger picture of how to adjust teaching throughout the year as well as their prior knowledge
    • Include a diagnostic? No, they give a math and reading diagnostic though
    • Talarico sees it as next generation of assessment to move past the way we do assessments now with equity in mind
    • Did you or other educators see new possibilities of what testing can look like? Yes, growing and changing is good, informing instruction

Panel 2

Margaret Spellings, CEO Texas 2036

  • Commends Mike Morath for his work on improving accountability in Texas
  • Wants to focus on key points on assessment today:
  • Economy relies on talent for workforce needs, which relies on knowing how students are doing to make smart investments
  • We need to set priorities, convey challenges and needs to community, reading and math on grade level crucial
  • Without assessments we don’t have data to make smart decisions or reward effective teachers
  • Nation at Risk report informed the need for assessment to understand educational attainment to meet country’s needs
  • Texas expanded annual assessment under the Perot Commission but TEAMS test was too easy and not very useful, undermining confidence
  • STAAR increased standards and has helped improved teaching
  • Adjustments have been made over the years but need to stay true to current needs of economy and students
  • Federal national annual assessment in reading and math is what she pushed for as Sec. of Education because strong alignment between teaching and assessment matters a lot
  • Legislature needs access to good data to make smart policies
  • New test questions must be piloted and screened every year, which is expensive and takes a lot of work
  • Tech based curriculum testing is useful but no replacement for assessments
  • STAAR a strong assessment due largely to hard work of teacher review (over 5,000 hours annually) to ensure the questions mirror classroom experiences; “drill and kill” can overdo it though
  • Texas resources and what gets taught gets measured helped increase outcomes, which has waned recently due to exemptions and increased flexibility for testing; we’re back on track now though
  • People are our #1 resource; We’re falling short of needs of our economies and families so we must do better
  • Without measurement and data with enforcement, we’ll fall behind
  • Huberty asks about implementation of HB 3906; looking across country, what are 1-2 things we should do that we’re not? Are we doing things other states are emulating? After NLCB and ESSA, things have changed, and formative assessments have a place at the table; 3 times a year assessment changes the game
    • We’re on the cutting edge of thinking this thing through; other states have fewer complex systems; we have a complicated one
    • Formative vs summative assessments: formative been around since Socrates; we need both, not a substitute; pilot program showing we can do both with some course corrections
    • Her call is to stand strong and explain to Texas public that assessment is necessary to helps students move forward
  • Talarico glad we’re innovating assessments; give reflection on what gets measured gets done; his concern is not to forget curriculum plays a central role; assessment needs to follow curricula, not the other way around; we may need more guidance on curricula
    • Federal government under NCLB paid a lot of attention to assessment but had to align curriculum to it; She wasn’t in position to align textbooks, PD, etc. in federal role though
    • Alignment along the way critically important and improving over time; we need to ensure materials and curricula align with assessments
    • Saw teachers and students want to be part of assessment system and now they increasingly are
    • Talarico says putting bar high is good but teachers in under resourced communities have extra challenge and policymakers don’t always help them meet that bar
  • Dutton looked at Mississippi’s 3rd grade reading assessment that acts as a bar to move to 4th grade if students aren’t reading on grade level; thoughts on it?
    • No social promotion policy under Bush was similar and had good effects with real focus on reading-based practices and PD, state leg invested a lot back then to improve it; after financial crisis it waned but under HB3 there’s a new investment
    • Mississippi doing great work through that policy that has born fruit for kids, achieving at a much higher level
    • Dutton wonders how this policy could work in Texas

Kate Greer, Commit Partnership

  • Texas one of 12 states with A-F rating on accountability scale including consequences, critical report cards on school quality; info paints a clear picture for key stakeholders on how to make informed decisions
  • 2018-19 was the only year accountability system we currently have was in full effect; next year will be the second full year
  • The past few years have shown students in A-B schools are much more likely to graduate, make living wage, be employed
  • Accountability system is predictive regardless of student income level; Students perform 2.5x better at A-B campuses than F campuses
  • Less than 5% of students at F schools are career or college ready after HS graduation; assessment helps shine a light on a path ahead and inspires action
  • More than 400,000 students across campus gained access to A-B campuses in 2018-19
  • Hope Chart shows districts with high poverty students performing at high levels, allowing them to highlight these schools, what they’re doing to be successful, find best practices, and promote them to other schools across Texas
  • When adults share best practices, students succeed
  • Talarico pushes back on not stigmatizing schools that rank D or F because it’s inevitable; ranking system also expensive; putting a high bar is cheap but high support is expensive; challenges Commit and others to ensure high support
    • It is both, everyone is education ecosystem understands need for increased resources to help kids
    • Talarico wishes there was a stronger mechanism to get adults to give resources to help kids
  • Dutton – What does “economically disadvantaged” mean in terms of education
    • Used to be based on free and reduced lunch, now based on census block of income per HB3
    • What does that term define about the child? Does it stigmatize them? Political term to help determine income and other factors influencing their life

Panel 3

Dr. Tory Hill, Superintendent Channelview ISD

  • 6th year in district in eastern Texas- gives overview of district demographics
  • Wants to speak about assessment literacy, STAAR redesign, and accountability
  • Foundation of assessment literacy sometimes misunderstood; need to be formative and interim, not only summative like STAAR
    • formative and interim assessments drive continuous improvement and student growth; need to build capacity around that
    • need multiple modes of assessment for success of students and teachers, building a formative culture
    • teachers who have assessment literacy foster a low-stress environment that allow students to show their skills, which is more important than a summative assessment
    • STAAR has a purpose but not a driver of student achievement
    • HB 3906 requires more teacher PD to foster assessment literacy and build their capacity as educators
  • STAAR redesign promotes a focus on rigor for post-secondary education, requiring students to give written responses
    • better aligned for SAT to increase readiness to military, college, or career
    • will allow students to present their knowledge in multiple ways
    • key to transition relies on additional supports for teachers
    • science to assessment literacy that cannot be overlooked
    • How do we design statewide systems that support teachers in creating instructional rigor?
  • A-F Accountability allows for comparison of schools, which is valuable and recognizes academic growth in students
    • This system has increased number of students college & career ready
    • But puts heavy emphasis on 1 day of testing, not fostering a culture of growth
    • Current composites are very complicated and can be difficult for stakeholders to read and analyze
    • Doesn’t account for many factors to drive student and teacher success like family and community engagement, teacher retention, environmental factors; those with high levels of disadvantaging factors should get bonus points

Lana Sveda, College Board

  • Sharing information about SAT and how it affects student success in Texas public schools
  • Introducing new version of SAT in 2024, totally virtual, shorter, and to include information on colleges and workforce development programs
  • SAT important test to college admissions but shouldn’t be used to determine whether a student graduates from HS
    • Students who need to retest wouldn’t be able to sit to retake certain parts, only whole thing
    • Graduation rates would suffer if SAT were used for college graduation requirement
  • HB3 policies are helping to accelerate student achievement, which they applaud
  • SAT was more common in fast, high-growth districts but more common broadly now thanks to HB3; 1,222 administered SAT during school during 2019, which is 84% increase, including in rural areas, helping more students make academic gains
  • Outcomes-based incentive program for military, college, and career readiness, securing millions of dollars in college funding
  • They can offer more data and research to the legislature should they need it

Megan Perez, Gregory Portland ISD

  • 2017 STAAR review committee participant when she was a 4th grade teacher; Helped her learn more about what she was teaching and how she would be tested, helped her become a better teacher overall
  • In 2020, she was part of STAAR redesign to edit questions; had interesting experience and thinks the way it asks questions lends itself better to how they’re teaching in class, making students more successful (especially with more writing)
  • STAAR helped learn not only if students passed but how they can improve

Dee Carney, Texas School Alliance, Raise Your Hand Texas Accountability Council

  • The current A-F system relies heavily on STAAR test
  • Questions for unintended consequences of current system:
  • Current system fails to recognize what thousands of Texans say is important in a school
  • In 2016, Texans said career & technical training as well as climate and safety were more important that solely academic factors to school quality
  • 83% of 16,000 Texans don’t believe STAAR effectively assesses all factors that make a school good such as arts programs
  • In 6 other states, they include non-assessment related items in their ratings of schools
  • School ratings fall short in understanding that learning begins in very different places; some schools starting from low student literacy levels while others start with high performing students
  • STAAR results show opportunity gaps across school years but we need equity measures in accountability (like Equity Index in Oklahoma for example)
  • Will STAAR assessment ranking identify schools by income level? Poverty is not an excuse for poor performance but hugely influential on student achievement
  • Remove summative rating and keep individual domain ratings to identify where improvement is needed
  • 40% of Texans want multiple types of grades to describe different teaching/learning happening
  • Non-test indicators can provide a more wholistic view of school effectiveness to tell the story of how school is preparing its youngest learners for success
  • Better align HSs to workforce and military readiness
  • Include census block groups in school accountability ratings
  • Current STAAR assessment system still a work in progress
  • M. González recognizes various inequities in her district’s schools and wonders if any state is implementing an equitable assessment
    • Not yet but a Georgetown Study identifies states doing things well
    • Child Equity Index from HB3 could help recognize the academic lift needed to support low-SES students
  • Bernal agrees there has to be something extrapolated from the score, but asks if that rating should trigger additional support for F schools or just describe the problem further to then do something about it?
    • HB22 says all districts should have opportunity to reach an A but that’s not working out due to unintended consequences; in Connecticut high needs students get additional points to account for their differing starting place
    • Would new labeling system help? Letter grades are helpful but Texans want more to be taken into account about school quality

Christy Hovanetz, Senior Policy Fellow ExcelInEd

  • Here to talk about STAAR Test validity and reliability
  • Set up A-F accountability system in FL and now in Mississippi
  • STAAR is to student achievement as a scale is to weight, reliable and shows how much you know/weigh; results don’t change unless you act but don’t specify how to act
  • Tool to keep and provide equity through education, whether policies are working, meeting workforce needs, accountability measure to taxpayers
  • STAAR has been reviewed internally and externally for validity and reliability, which it meets
  • The assessment meets testing requirements with successful online administration this past year
  • There’s great quality control for STAAR
  • Few states now test on paper with innovative item types, increasing base validity
  • Creating a system of assessments at state level could be beneficial, testing for and of learning through formative assessment
  • Best industry performers such Technical Advisory Committee can ensure effectiveness
  • If you’re accountable for assessments, it should inspire action
  • To make state assessments more effective, you can use results to improve practice by planning, using performative assessments, reducing quantity of tests, innovating and accelerating results, and assessment literacy (informing parents about student progress)

Panel 4

Cindi Williams, Co-Founder Learning Heroes

  • Founded Learning Heroes 8 years ago to listen to parents (working parents, ELLs, etc.)
  • Study parent mindsets that fostered an “aha” moment they’ve learned
  • Parents confidence and academic achievement of student have a gap
  • Parents don’t always have skills to advocate for their child
  • Working with TEA to make resources created for parents so they can better understand them
  • 16 national parent surveys- most recent over 1,400 parents
    • Parents hopes and dreams for kids remain high with gap between races (Hispanic highest historically on this question)
    • 75% parents confident their student will do well after HS
  • 93% of all parents think their kids are at or above grade reading level
  • 92% of all parents think their kids are at or above grade math level
  • Parents focus on report card but no disaggregation between on-grade level performance and report card
  • 58% of teachers think parents are aware of their child’s academic achievement level
  • Texas is the first in the nation getting children’s assessment scoring information to parents
  • Parents overall value the statewide assessment; parents want to lower the stakes for students
  • Parents want resources at home, to receive scores before the end of the school year, and that their scores are not used to rate the school/rate teachers
  • Parents post-COVID are getting more engaged and will continue
  • Teachers have reported they need help in communications with families whose first language is difficult and help to reach out to families they cannot get ahold of

Shea Mackin, National Parents Union, Senior Advisor

  • Network of 600 parent organizations engaging and empowering families
  • Has national poll project to collect parent opinions
  • 65% of parents are worrying if their parents are on track and rely on assessments to understand, intervene, and advocate for their child
  • Income disparity in our country and parents want equity in education and testing is a tool to help ensure kids have what they need
  • 6/10 parents support statewide testing throughout year and end of year
  • Parents also need tools for intervention

Faith Olson, K-12 Public Schools

  • HB3906 implementation- which she learned about from curriculum developer
  • Screens in class have adversely affected his ability to perform on STAAR tests due to difficulty taking notes, headaches, ADHD, distractibility, etc.
  • Wants to see flexibility and accommodations for students to take STAAR test on paper
  • Virtual learning is detrimental to mental health, as seen during COVID
  • Some students test better online but students need options for what works best for them
  • Need to ensure state is not putting up insurmountable obstacle to allowing schools to make this decision at local level, which is currently not possible, discriminating against these students and not providing them a free and appropriate education
  • Recognizes the bill was not intended to discriminate but this could happen without the removal of the virtual requirement
  • Dutton asks her to work with his staff to address the difficulty she faced with her child

Public Testimony

Steve Swanson, Volunteer in Public Education

  • Wants to focus on state’s responsibility and accountability to protect students from mental health and violence issues
  • Students, teachers, and schools are not the problem
  • Senate committee to protect all students- turned stones and found bill for trauma care but didn’t want to duplicate laws; laws about human trafficking not being enforced
  • Wants the committee to promote honoring the lawyer’s creed to protect all students

Dr. Annette Till, Superintendent Del Valley ISD

  • Sent research literature that students perform better on paper & pencil assessment than virtual, up to 11 months of learning difference with English I test
  • Pro for computer-based assessment- quick to take and get results
  • Cons for computer-based assessment- students are digital natives for online games and videos but perform more poorly for digital text
  • Texas students deserve consideration, so recommends:
    • STAAR assessment placement committee at campus/district level to determine what form students should take the test

Closing Remarks

  • Chair Dutton – Last hearing on teachers on Sept. 20; a joint hearing with Higher Education Committee