Assessment as a tool to determine content mastery is necessary in the learning environment. Currently, the state of Texas uses the State Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) to assess students’ mastery of content over the school year. The outcome of this data is used to determine things like graduation or promotion eligibility, teacher efficacy, grade level readiness, student content mastery, or campus and district performance. The test is the same across all Texas districts.
Given the name of the test, it is an assessment of academic readiness. Readiness for the next grade, graduation and college or vocational success. Therefore, student performance on this test can be a predictor of student success or struggle at the juncture that follows it. Ideally, students should demonstrate competency on the test at around 80% or 90% or more. At bare minimum, student performance should at least reach 70% mastery to have a minimal chance of success at what follows. That is roughly a C on a report card. In Texas, the threshold is not that high.
Did you know that in the state of Texas, the threshold for passing the STAAR tests is only twenty-five to thirty-five percent? For example, Texas freshmen taking the biology exam must correctly answer just 19 out of 54 questions. That equates to just 35%, far below the already low bar of 70%.
According to the TEA website, one of the goals of the STAAR is to make Texas among the top 10 states for graduating college and career ready students by the 2019-2020 school year. At the same time, but in a different place, information from the TEA website indicates students would need to answer correctly at least 56% of the STAAR test in math, 52% in reading and 61% in writing to be considered “SAT ready.” The benchmark for readiness in ACT math, reading and English scores were similar at 57%, 63% and 52-55% respectively. It appears the state selected standard for achievement, the requirement to be minimally ready to test into college, and the stated goal for the STAAR test are contrary to each other.
Most parents and educators are not aware of this unfortunate truth. They are not aware of the woefully low bar that has been set for their children who will eventually leave high school for college, vocation, or the military. Furthermore, many will perceive their children passing the STAAR test as a celebratory accomplishment, not realizing their children may have missed 2/3 of the tests and are not being adequately prepared to perform well on ACT and SAT exams.
Hopefully parents will consider this information when their children are preparing for the STAAR tests in the spring. Passing a test with about 35% accuracy is unacceptable and indicates the student did not have a good understanding of the content tested. We should not be okay with this.
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