Texas Education Agency Math Teks

TISD prepares for STAAR testing

“The state Legislature is still in the process of developing the STAAR, but we know that it will be more vigorous than the TAKS,” said Barbara Dale, director of curriculum and instruction for Taylor ISD. “It will test items at a greater depth and complexity than the TAKS. The test items will include a lot of problem solving and require more cognitive thinking.”

According to Dale, the main purpose of the Texas Education Agency’s switch over to STAAR testing is to better prepare students for college.

“There is going to be more of an emphasis on college-readiness so that when students finish high school, they will have the knowledge and skills they need to be successful,” she said.

For grades 3-8, Dale said the overall content of the test will be much like the TAKS; however, the test itself will change.

“In math and science, for instance, there will be more open-ended items that require students to think on an analytical level,” she said.

The big change, according to Dale, will be at the high school level, where grade-specific assessments will be replaced with 12 end-of-course assessments throughout one’s high school career, or rather, four for each year through the 11th grade.

Dale said all of the assessments will focus on the four core subjects – math, science, social studies and English; however, the actual area of each subject will change over the years.

 The assessments will include the following: Algebra I, geometry, algebra II, biology, chemistry, physics, English I, English II, English III, world geography, world history and U.S. history.

One important note is only this school year’s incoming freshmen will be taking the STAAR end-of-course assessments in spring 2012. All incoming sophomores and juniors will be taking the TAKS test.

Dale said this is because, as of now, the end-of-course assessments will count toward 15 percent of a student’s grade; and in order for a student to graduate, they must have a certain average in each of the four core subjects and they must pass English II and Algebra II.

“At this point, the Legislature is still working on passing standards for the STAAR test,” she said.

To add to the difficulty, there will also be a time limit on the STAAR test.

“There will be a four-hour time limit for all grade levels,” Dale said. “In the past, we allowed students to use the whole day to take the test, but now it is timed.

Edugilent Publishing Introduces STAAR-based Products | The Houston ...

Austin, Texas (PRWEB) May 30, 2011

Edugilent Publishing, LLC, an Austin-based publisher of educational support materials for the K-12 Texas education system, introduces new STAAR-based products to empower educators to prepare their students for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). The STAAR standardized tests will be introduced to students in the 2011-2012 school year in grades 3-High School End of Course.

TEA State Guidelines for the STAAR assessments are available for teachers to download on the Edugilent Publishing website. The new rigorous STAAR assessments replace the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exams in Texas.

Students in grades 3-8 will be administered the STAAR assessments in the same subjects and grades that are currently assessed on TAKS. Grade-specific high school assessments have been replaced with 12 end-of-course (EOC) assessments in Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English I, English II, English III, World Geography, World History, and U.S. History.

Edugilent Publishing introduces two new products – T-BASE STAARTM Benchmark Assessments and STAAR-aligned TxCADsTM (Texas Curriculum Alignment Documents) to meet teachers’ needs during the transition to the STAAR assessments.

T-BASE STAARTM benchmark assessments offer educators a secure series of benchmark tests to measure students’ mastery of TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge of Skills) as required by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for all Texas public school students.

T-BASE STAAR™ benchmark assessment questions and passages are authentically written by professional assessment writers and reviewed by high performing classroom teachers. The secure benchmark assessments are available in T-BASE STAAR™ Modified and T-BASE STAAR™ Spanish versions to help prepare special education and bilingual students for the STAAR -M Modified and STAAR Spanish state assessments in addition to the T-BASE STAAR™ General benchmark assessments.

TxCADsTM are STAAR-aligned Texas Curriculum Alignment Documents, which offer alignment between the curriculum (old to new) and assessment (TAKS to STAAR) for all STAAR tested grades and subject areas in K-12 Texas public schools.

“School administrators and teachers are required to make substantial changes to their curriculum to help prepare students for the more rigorous STAAR assessments,” said Robin A. Baucom, President of Edugilent Publishing. “Our products enable educators to save time and ensure that their curriculum planning is tailored to help students meet TEA student expectations and TEKS.

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