By George Scott, Project Director
Academic Equity Advocates
One does not need to be a testing psychometrician, statistician, or academician to use this column to start you down the path of genuinely understanding what’s happened over the past three decades in Texas public education student testing and accountability.
Common sense and intellectual curiosity coupled with discipline to spend some time studying what is published on this website is more than enough to let you quickly surpass the knowledge level of the typical school board members in Texas and even most superintendents who have meekly surrendered to the system.
Consider this column a sort of executive summary – my summaries are not superficial – of our thesis that Texas has made institutional decisions eviscerating any pretense of consistent grade level integrity in accountability over three decades from the start of TAAS testing basically in 1992-93 (for the record) through the most recent round of 2022-23 STAAR testing.
This is a brief column. It is linked, however, to significant supporting data that raises questions that will be addressed and answered in subsequent report starting in our initial launch of stories.
This column will be comprised of factual snippets, albeit important ones, to foreshadow our story about how Texas got here from some 30 years ago. The chain of Texas’ academic manipulation and deception that connects 30 plus years ago until today is forged in steel. It has damaged the institution of public education and harmed millions of students along its path, particularly at-risk, economically disadvantaged students statistically dominated by children of color.
So, let’s look at these bottom-line snippets from the primary spring administration of STAAR in 2022-23. As your review them, just know, the performance standards required to PASS the test or MEET GRADE LEVEL on the test are not shown YET. It’s a crucial part of the story. There are follow-up tables to the snippets & a link to the full set of tables.
This is your introduction where I hope your common sense is at least ‘teased’ to want to know more. If you stick with us, you will know a whole lot more. Please note in examples that cite 8th grade math, it does not include 8th graders who took the end of course Algebra I EOC test. In reality, that makes the numbers even more disturbing.
ECONOMIC DISADVANTED STUDENTS
- 8th grade: 67% of this grade PASSED the MATH test and 67% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 8th grade: 64% of this grade PASSED the SCIENCE test and 67% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 8th grade: 76% of this grade PASSED the READING test and 56% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- EOC: 73% of economic disadvantaged PASSED the EOC ALG. 1 test and 64% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- EOC: 63% of economic disadvantaged PASSED the EOC Eng. I test and 57% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 6th grade: 67% of this grade PASSED the READING test and 61% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 7th grade: 69% of this grade PASSED the READING test and 59% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 5th grade: 74% of this grade PASSED the READING test and 55% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
AT-RISK STUDENTS
- 6th grade: 62% of this grade PASSED the MATH test and 80% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 6th grade: 62% of this grade PASSED the READING test and 69% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 5th grade: 69% of this grade PASSED the MATH test and 68% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- EOC: 82% of at-risk PASSED the EOC BIO test and 62% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- EOC: 58% of at-risk PASSED the EOC Eng. I test and 64% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 8th grade: 71% of this grade PASSED the READING test and 65% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 7th grade: 62% of this grade PASSED the READING test and 69% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 5th grade: 68% of this grade PASSED the READING test and 63% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
OVERALL STATEWIDE
- 8th grade: 60% of this grade PASSED the SOCIAL STUDIES. test and 69% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 5th grade: 64% of this grade PASSED the SCIENCE test and 66% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- 6th grade: 74% of this grade PASSED the MATH test and 63% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- EOC: 78% PASSED the Algebra I test and 55% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
- EOC: 71% PASSED the EOC Eng. I test and 46% were BELOW GRADE LEVEL.
Actual performance standards to meet these thresholds will be your eventual and major point of analysis. The above snippets and the links below which will take you to a more complete look at these 2022-23 STAAR results is the first order of business. This opens a Pandora’s Box to which THERE ARE HONEST ANSWERS which we will address comprehensively.
In the meantime, when considering the results of any STAAR test, you will want to know WHAT does it mean to PASS & what does it mean to achieve GRADE LEVEL? Here are two links: One table shows the data by grade level for the subjects reported. The second table sorts the same data by ethnicity and demographic profile. Both fully support the concerns raised by the above examples that are not really out of context.
2 Key Links Supporting Above Data References
2022-23 Statewide STAAR Results Reported by Grade Level & Subjects Tested
2022-23 Statewide STAAR Results Reported by Sorting Ethnicity and Demographic Student Status