Commissioner of Education Michael Williams has advised school districts and state charter schools that due to the transition to the revised statewide mathematics curriculum standards, the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) assessments for grades 5 and 8 mathematics will be administered only once in the 2014–2015 school year.
This decision means that the Student Success Initiative (SSI) requirement that fifth and eighth grade students must pass the STAAR mathematics assessment in order to be promoted to sixth and eighth grade, respectively, will be suspended only for the 2014-15 school year and only for mathematics. State law requiring fifth and eighth grade students to pass the STAAR reading exam in order to proceed to the next grade level will still be in effect.
Revised TEKS in mathematics were adopted by the State Board in April 2012. The revised TEKS for kindergarten through grade 8 will be implemented in classrooms and in the grades 3–8 assessment program in the 2014–2015 school year. New mathematics instructional materials for first through eighth grade will be in classrooms in the 2014-15 school year. School districts and state charter schools will review and select instructional materials for high school math courses this year, with those materials in classrooms for the 2015-16 school year. Commissioner Williams echoed the sentiments of many teachers and school leaders when he noted in a May 1 letter that Texas faces “substantial challenges associated with implementation of the revised mathematics statewide curriculum standards in the STAAR grades 3–8 assessments.” The Commissioner explained that districts will use other relevant academic information to make promotion or retention decisions for mathematics.
The State Board of Education has a regular cycle for the review and modification of the statewide curriculum standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). As TEKS revisions are made in the various subject areas, the state instructional materials review and adoption cycle follows. Subsequently, changes are made to the state assessment program to maintain the necessary link between the TEKS and statewide assessments.
Because performance standards for STAAR grades 3–8 mathematics will not be set until after the spring 2015 administration, retest opportunities for STAAR grades 5 and 8 mathematics will not be offered in May and June of 2015. This parallels the approach used for the first administration of STAAR in spring 2012.
More information about the STAAR mathematics may be found on TEA’s STAAR Mathematics Resources webpage at: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/math/.