New question types on STAAR 2.0 have proven challenging for many students. TEA’s statewide item analysis reports indicate students across all grade levels struggled with the Short and Extended Constructed Response questions on the English Language Arts STAAR and with the Technology Enhanced Items on the mathematics STAAR. The increased level of rigor and complexity, along with students’ lack of familiarity with these types of items, contributed to students’ poor performance. As the STAAR test approaches this spring, many educators are considering how best to plan instruction to support student success with the new item types.
Some districts, like Ector County ISD, have turned to Sirius Solutions as a supplemental resource which offers essential TEKS instruction with authentic STAAR 2.0 practice. Instruction in Sirius Solutions resources is designed to reflect the content, context, and rigor of STAAR 2.0. Their resources include an itembank with SCR’s, ECR’s, TEI’s along with model answers that help students learn and improve on their own responses. Dr. Lilia Nanez, ECISD Associate Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, commented that Sirius Solutions has been an effective resource that ECISD plans to continue using in the future. When students are fluent in the STAAR 2.0 format, thinking skills, and level of rigor, they will perform more confidently on test day with reduced anxiety and an increased capacity for these more cognitively complex STAAR questions.
Learn more about TEKS-based instruction from Sirius Education Solutions: Sirius_Promotes-STAAR-Thinking.pdf (siriuseducationsolutions.com)
Learn more about STAAR 2.0 new question types new-question-types-jan-2022.pdf (texas.gov)
Learn more about Sirius Solutions new question types Samplers and Demos – Sirius Education Solutions