New Application for Educator Committees
Thousands of Texas educators
have served on one or more Texas Education Agency (TEA) educator committees.
These educators include K–12 classroom teachers, higher education
representatives, curriculum specialists, administrators, and Education Service
Center (ESC) staff. The involvement of Texas education professionals enables
TEA to ensure it is fulfilling the needs of students across the state. The
educator committees include item reviews, rangefinding, standard setting,
advisory, and teacher institutes. Educators can now apply to participate in
these committees by using the new Educator Committee Application Form. Most educator committees are held in Austin with
travel, hotel, and meals provided.
2018 Teacher Institutes
TEA
will be conducting teacher institutes again this summer. The institutes will
cover reading/language arts, mathematics, and science for grades 3–8 and high
school. TEA is encouraging highly-qualified Texas educators to apply. The
week-long institutes are currently scheduled to be held in Austin. Week 1 for
reading/language arts is currently scheduled July 16–20, and week 2 for
mathematics and science is scheduled for July 23–27. Teachers will receive
compensation for their work and have their travel, lodging, and meal expenses
covered. More specific information about the 2018 Teacher Institutes is coming
soon. Use the link below to complete an application to participate in the teacher institutes.
Texas Student Data
System
TEA
is beginning the necessary research to enable the transition from the Public
Education Information Management System (PEIMS) identification number to the
Texas Student Data System (TSDS) unique ID as the unique student identifier for
the Texas assessment program. TEA is working with internal departments, ETS,
and Pearson to gather all necessary information, design a roll-out plan, and
implement this by the 2019–2020 school year. More information will be provided
as it becomes available.
From
Deb’s Desk
Thank you all for
your efforts in making my first major testing week in Texas a success! Although
there was a small disruption with online testing, it was quickly resolved, and
no student responses were lost. We also had some issues with our new phone system.
Unfortunately, the new VOIP system is not set up to handle the call volume that
we experienced during the April testing week. We have worked with our
operations department to alleviate some of the stress on the system; however, it
is not able to handle high call volumes and voice messages. Your calls are very
important to us. If you are not able to speak to a TEA representative when you
call, please leave a voicemail and we will call you back as soon as possible.
We have assigned members of the administration team to monitor voicemails and
get messages to appropriate team members to help ensure that your needs are
addressed quickly. We will have members of our team onsite at the ETS support
center to assist with policy questions and give us more bandwidth in providing
you with the assistance you need. I want to thank you for your patience and
grace under pressure as agency staff addressed your concerns in April. I look
forward to two more successful weeks of testing coming up.
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Change in TELPAS
Reporting Dates
Initial
standard reports for the 2018 Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment
System (TELPAS) administration will not be available on May 14 as indicated in
the 2018 Calendar of Events. Reports will only be available on the final report
date, August 15. However, data files will still be available on May 14. The data files
will include only raw scores.
Updated data files that include scale scores will be
available after performance standards are
established.
Medical Exemptions for
STAAR
With
the implementation of the new accountability system in 2018, TEA has developed a
new process for indicating a medical exemption from the State of Texas
Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®). A student must be absent
during the entire testing window in order for the district to use the medical
exemption. To ensure that participation rates are not impacted by students who have
experienced a significant medical event, the agency will more closely monitor
participation rates for schools and districts.
Transcribing Student Responses
As a reminder, student responses recorded
in the test booklet may be transcribed onto an answer document. This change is
a departure from previous years, as well as information in current test
administration materials.
Technology Enhanced Item Pilot
As a reminder, TEA is introducing
technology-enhanced items (TEI) that create more engaging content and allow for
demonstration of higher order thinking skills. The agency is piloting a few TEI
items during the May 2018 STAAR online administrations for grades 3, 4, 6, and
7 mathematics and reading. The TEI pilot is only available for students testing
online and is optional for the students. The TEI pilot, which will include up
to five TEI sample questions, will be displayed after the student completes and
submits the STAAR online assessment and will not affect the student’s score on
STAAR.
STAAR Report Card Reminder
Electronic versions of STAAR Report
Cards will be posted in the STAAR Assessment Management System in accordance
with the dates listed in the 2018 Calendar of Events. Printed copies of the
STAAR Report Cards for spring 2018 administrations will be sent in June as
listed in the 2018 Calendar of Events.
Technology Updates
From ETS:
Functionality for importing
test tickets has been changed and will no longer serve to transfer in a
student. Beginning with the May 2018 STAAR administrations, districts importing
a test ticket will be able to access and print the student test ticket from the
test session and group into which the test ticket was imported. However, the
student's home county-district-campus number where
scores will be reported will not change. Importing the student test ticket will
not transfer in the student to the district importing the test ticket. Districts
can still transfer in/out students as needed via the student upload,
registration, or transfer functionality.
From Pearson:
The
TELPAS Online Training Center will go offline for maintenance on July 2. Users
can download and save certificates and print scoring summaries before that
date. After the training center is taken offline, certificates and scoring
summaries will no longer be available.
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Below is a list of documents that have been or will be posted to
the Student Assessment Division website: http://tea.texas.gov/student.assessment/.
-
New
Participation Requirements for 2018-2019 for STAAR
Alternate 2
-
2017-2018
School Year raw
score conversion tables for April 2018 STAAR grades 5 and 8 mathematics
and reading
- 2017–2018
Interpreting Assessment Reports (coming soon)
- Calculating
the STAAR Progress Measure (coming soon)
- A Parent’s
Guide to the STAAR Progress Measure (coming soon)
- Progress
Measure Questions and Answers (coming soon)
- STAAR
On-Track Measure Questions and Answers (coming soon)
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Below
is a list of events coming up in the next few months.
Assessments:
- STAAR
Algebra I, Biology, and U.S. History, May 7–11
- STAAR
grades 3, 4, 6 and 7 mathematics and reading, grades 5 and 8 science, grade 8
social studies, Algebra II, and English III, May 14–18
- STAAR
grades 5 and 8 mathematics and reading retests, May 14–18
- STAAR
Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology, and U.S. History, June 25–29
-
STAAR
grades 5 and 8 mathematics and reading retests, June 26–29
Training—Save
the Date:
- ESC
Training for the 2018–2019 school year, October 3
Here
are some interesting numbers from the April 2018 STAAR grades 5 and 8
mathematics and reading administration.
-
1,705,580—the total number of STAAR tests
administered
- 1,595,902—the
total number of STAAR tests administered on paper
-
109,678—the total number of STAAR tests
administered online
- 17%—the percent increase in the number of online testers from March 2017
Here
are some interesting numbers from the 2017–2018 Texas Writing Pilot.
-
16—the
number of ESC regions participating
- 72—the
number of districts/charter schools participating
-
900—the
number of teachers participating
- 30,410—the
number of students participating
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