While overall student performance on the 2023 re-designed STAAR Reading Language Arts for grades 3-8 was comparable to the 2022 results, a deeper dive into the data shows many elementary students struggled with the new, Extended Constructed Response items. These items required students to read a passage online and type their response to an open-ended question using evidence from the passage. Commissioner Morath noted to the State Board of Education in his comments at the August meeting that it was unclear from the results if students struggled to read or struggled to type. In fact, a high proportion of students at grades three, four, and five received a score of zero out of ten possible points on the English versions of the test. At grade three, 42% of 365,558 students statewide received a zero score and at grade four, 46% of 365,035 students received a zero. Only 25% of 372,677 fifth graders received a score of zero, perhaps indicating greater fluency with keyboarding at grade five, or increased familiarity with extended constructed response questions. Only a small proportion of students earned a perfect score of ten points for this item, with 1% of third graders earning a perfect score, 2% at fourth grade, and 4% at fifth grade. At third grade, the majority of students, 18%, earned a score 4, while the majority of fourth and fifth graders scored in the range of 4—6 points. As districts evaluate their local data, attention will certainly be given to instructional supports to assist students with developing keyboarding fluency as well as with writing evidence-based responses to open ended questions about texts.
To compare your local data with statewide results, find the Standard Constructed Response Summary on the TEA Student Assessment Data Interaction website at this link: