Texas Register, Volume 40, Number 10, Pages 983-1152, March 6, 2015 Page: 1,083
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disagrees with TPERN's request to remove the formula from the
rule, as well as with the comments that the agency has not been
clear what the 0-100 scale reports.
Comment: Two individuals asked if the 0-100 score would help
districts incorporate STAAR scores into a student's grade. An-
other individual commented that the proposed amendment po-
tentially gives districts another means to misuse a student's test
results. TPERN requested that the agency prohibit the use of
the score by districts in the calculation of a student's grade or
grade point average.
Agency Response: The agency provides the following clarifica-
tion. How a district uses the 100-point scale is outside the scope
of the proposed rule action. Local grading policy is at the discre-
tion of the district. In accordance with TEC, 28.0216, a school
district must adopt a grading policy, including provisions for the
assignment of grades on examinations, before each school year.
Comment: An individual statedthat STAAR results should not
be used in evaluating whether a student is retained or promoted
to the next grade.
Agency Response: This comment is outside the scope of the
proposed rule action. Assessment grade promotion and reten-
tion policies are governed by TEC, 28.0211, and 19 TAC Chap-
ter 101, Assessment, Subchapter BB, Commissioner's Rules
Concerning Grade Advancement and Accelerated Instruction.
Comment: An individual expressed opposition to the proposal
by stating that proposed subsection (e) is unfair because the
STAAR assessments are not externally verified or aligned to
the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curriculum.
Agency Response: The agency disagrees. The Standards for
Educational and Psychological Testing by the American Educa-
tional Research Association and the National Council on Mea-
surement in Education provide a set of guidelines for evaluating
the quality of testing practices. By using these standards to guide
test development, the Texas assessment program reflects best
practices in educational measurement. The Texas Technical Ad-
visory Committee (TTAC), a panel of national testing experts cre-
ated specifically for the Texas assessment program, provides
ongoing input to the agency about STAAR validity and reliabil-
ity evidence based on national standards in measuring student
learning.
Test development begins by convening Texas educator meet-
ings to review the TEKS curriculum and develop appropriate as-
sessment categories for each grade and subject. In 2013-2014,
more than 2,000 Texas educators participated in over 140 ed-
ucator meetings. These Texas educators consisted of Kinder-
garten-Grade 12 classroom teachers, higher education repre-
sentatives, curriculum specialists, administrators, and education
service center staff. For each grade and course, educator com-
mittees prepare and review performance level descriptors as
an aligned system, which describe a reasonable progression of
skills within each content area (English, mathematics, science,
and social studies).
When test scores are used to make inferences about student
achievement, it is important that the assessments support those
inferences. Texas collects validity evidence annually to support
the interpretations and uses of the STAAR test scores. Texas
follows national standards and best practices used to satisfy fed-
eral peer review to continue to ensure the validity of the STAAR
assessments.Evidence-based studies were used to inform the establishment
of performance standards across the STAAR assessments.
These studies can be grouped in the following categories:
STAAR-to-TAKS comparison studies; STAAR linking studies,
which link performance on the STAAR assessments across
grade levels or courses in the same content areas; STAAR
correlation estimates, which evaluate the strength of the rela-
tionship between scores on the STAAR assessments across
different content areas; grade correlation studies, which link per-
formance on the STAAR end-of-course (EOC) assessments
to course grades; and external validity studies, which link per-
formance on the STAAR assessments to external measures
(specifically: SAT, ACT, THEA, ACCUPLACER, Explore, and
Readistep).
Last, the STAAR assessments are directly aligned with the
TEKS curriculum in order to measure student learning of that
curriculum.
Comment: Concerning the agency's notice in the description of
the proposed rule actiontthat thennew STAAR Alternate 2 will be
first administered during the spring 2015 administration, an indi-
vidual asked if this means the agency plans to again administer
a modified assessment to be used for some students receiving
special education services. TPERN commented that it appears
the agency is eliminating STAAR A and STAAR Modified as-
sessments, implying that any elimination of a test serving spe-
cial education or Englishlanguage learner populations is failing
to take into account the unique obstacles faced by those popu-
lations.
Agency Response: The agency provides the following clarifica-
tion. As a result of a change in federal regulation, STAAR Mod-
ified has been eliminated. STAAR A is an accommodated ver-
sion of STAAR designed for students receiving special educa-
tion services and is offered as an online assessment in the same
grades and subjects as STAAR. The passing standards for
STAAR A are the same as any STAAR test. STAAR A pro-
vides embedded supports designed to help the students access
the content being assessed. These embedded supports include
visual aids, graphic organizers, clarifications of construct-irrele-
vant terms, and text-to-speech functionality.
STAAR Alternate was repealed by the 83rd Texas Legislature,
2013, to be replaced with the STAAR Alternate 2, administered
for the first time in spring 2015 to the state's most severely cog-
nitively disabled students. The STAAR Alternate 2 has been
developed to meet the federal requirements mandated under the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The agency
designed the STAAR Alternate 2 to assess students in Grades
3-8 and high school who have significant cognitive disabilities
and are receiving special education services.
For English language learners (ELLs), STAAR L is a linguis-
tically accommodated English version of the STAAR Grades
3-8 and EOC mathematics, science, and social studies assess-
ments. ELLs also have available to them other linguistic accom-
modations that may be appropriate as determined by a student's
Language Proficiency Assessment Committee.
The amendment is adopted under the Texas Education Code
(TEC), 39.0241(a), which authorizes the commissioner to de-
termine the level of performance considered to be satisfactory
on the assessment instruments, and TEC, 39.025(a), which
authorizes the commissioner to determine satisfactory perfor-
mance on each end-of-course assessment instrument listed un-
der TEC, 39.023(c), including a methodology for the conversionADOPTED RULES March 6, 2015 40 TexReg 1083
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Texas. Secretary of State. Texas Register, Volume 40, Number 10, Pages 983-1152, March 6, 2015, periodical, March 6, 2015; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth606207/m1/101/?rotate=270: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.