The Texas Education Agency (TEA) sent a notification to Education Service Centers and school district testing coordinators this week that outlines how the agency intends to approach the STAAR progress measure for the 2020-21 school year.

Typically, the STAAR progress measure is based on the change in a student's scores between the current year and the prior year. Because the STAAR tests were cancelled in Spring and Summer 2020 due to COVID-19, calculations using results for the 2019-20 school year are not feasible.

As a workaround, TEA will temporarily modify the calculation of the progress measure to be based off student scores from the 2018-19 and 2020-21 school years. Due to this change, students currently in 4th grade will be excluded, as they were in an untested grade (2nd grade) in 2018-19.

According to the notice, STAAR progress measures will be calculated for STAAR and STAAR Alternate 2 for the following grade levels and subject areas:

• Grade 5 Reading English, Reading Spanish (STAAR only), Mathematics English, and Mathematics Spanish (STAAR only)
• Grade 6 Reading and Mathematics
• Grade 7 Reading and Mathematics
• Grade 8 Reading and Mathematics
• Algebra I
• English I (STAAR Alternate 2 only)
• English II

The agency has not determined whether these modified progress measures will be used in the Texas public school accountability system's "School Progress" and "Closing the Gaps" domains, which are two of three domains used to determine academic accountability "A-F" ratings and interventions for public schools. The third domain used to calculate a composite score for districts and campuses is the "Student Achievement" domain.

TEA warns in the notice that the modified progress measure for 2020-21 is different from previous years both in context (massive educational disruptions) and in methodology. The agency also advises against using the measures for the new optional Teacher Incentive Allotment.

Earlier this year, Gov. Greg Abbott and TEA announced that STAAR scores would not be required factors in determining fifth and eighth grade promotion this year. However, state officials have not shown a willingness to waive testing requirements for a second year. At a Sept. 18 event in Dallas, Commissioner of Education Mike Morath was quoted as saying, "Teaching without some form of testing is just talking."

The admitted difficulty in relying on modified measures during a pandemic points to the inappropriateness of using STAAR scores for any high-stakes purposes at this time. While standardized testing may provide some insight into learning, any interpretation of STAAR data will be highly suspect and unreliable due to the myriad other factors that have arisen during the pandemic. As urged by our House of Delegates earlier this year, ATPE will continue to advocate at the state and federal levels for relief from testing and accountability requirements during this challenging and unusual academic year.