Commissioner of Education Michael Williams notified districts and charters that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) will maintain initial academic performance standards (Phase-In 1) for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) program for the 2014–2015 school year.
In addition to maintaining current performance standards for 2014-2015, TEA will be proposing changes to the existing plan to phase in performance standards for the STAAR grades 3–8 and end-of-course (EOC) assessment programs. The existing plan will be adjusted from two steps to three steps to allow for smaller, incremental movements toward final performance standards.
The proposed three-step phase-in plan would include:
- The current phase-in 1 performance standards will be maintained for the 2014–2015 school year.
- The new phase-in 2 performance standards will be implemented beginning in the 2015–2016 school year.
- The new phase-in 3 performance standards will be implemented beginning in the 2018–2019 school year.
- The final recommended performance standards will be implemented in the 2021–2022 school year.
The standard in place when a student first takes an EOC assessment is the standard that will be maintained throughout the student’s school career.
More information about the STAAR academic performance standards is available on the TEA website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/performance-standards/.