Automatic ECR Rescoring for Students One Point from the Next Performance Level

At the Texas Assessment Conference, the TEA Student Assessment Division shared updates related to House Bill 8, which requires certain RLA assessments to be automatically hand-rescored beginning in the 2027–28 school year. TEA will implement this practice earlier than required and will automatically rescore extended constructed responses (ECRs) on RLA assessments when a student is one point away from the next performance level, starting with the December 2025 EOC administrations.

Download a copy of the TEA Scoring slide deck from the Texas Assessment Conference here. 

New ELPS Resources Available on the ELAR/Spanish Language Support Webpage

The new ELPS recently adopted by the State Board of Education are scheduled to be implemented in classrooms beginning with the 2026–2027 school year. TEA has developed resources to support the implementation of the new ELPS. Resources include ELPS engagement session presentations, a 10-minute overview video, and side-by-side tables providing a comparison of the ELPS student expectations by grade band (kindergarten–grade 3 and grades 4–12).

Local school systems must continue providing instruction in the current ELPS in 19 TAC, Chapter 74, §74.4, until they are replaced with the new ELPS in 2026–2027.

For more information about the new ELPS, please visit the English Language Arts and Reading | Texas Education Agency webpage.

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Teachers know the challenge: students hit multisyllabic words and suddenly reading slows down. In this episode, researchers Jessica Toste and Brennan Chandler share research-based routines that make multisyllabic word reading easier, more automatic, and more effective. You’ll hear practical strategies rooted in the research to help your students tackle big words!

Episode 237