STAAR Testing Changes

The STAAR redesign is a result of House Bill (HB) 3906 passed by the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019. The redesign was implemented in the state summative assessments administered in the 2022–2023 school year.

The STAAR redesign aims to more closely align the test with the classroom experience and includes several components:

Online Testing and Accommodations

• All STAAR tests will be taken online to provide robust accommodations for students with specific learning needs.

New Question Types

• New question types will be added, including non-multiple-choice questions that are more consistent with the types of questions teachers ask in class.
• The maximum number of multiple-choice questions on a test is 75%. This means the other 25% of the test will consist of open-ended questions, graphs, number lines, free response questions and more. This is different from the STAAR tests students have experienced in the past. 
• Some questions will now ask for multiple answers. Instead of selecting A, B, C or D, students could be asked to choose the two or three best answers. There could also be multiple parts to a question. For example, the answer in part A of a question determines the information in part B.

Cross-curricular Passages

• Writing will be added to the reading test as early as third grade where students were previously assessed only on multiple choice questions.
• There will be an increase in the number of cross-curricular informational passages that reference content aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for other subject areas (e.g., social studies, science, mathematics, fine arts, etc.). While the questions will include topics from other subject areas, the questions will only assess a student's reading and language arts performance; students will not be scored on their understanding of the other subject areas.

Evidence-based Writing

• Beginning with the 2022–2023 school year, Reading-Language Arts (RLA) assessments will assess both reading and writing (grades 3–8 English, grades 3–5 Spanish, and English I and II End-of-Course) and will include new question types and an extended constructed response, or essay, at every grade level.

What This Means

While results may look similar, it is important to remember the results of the STAAR redesign and previous versions of STAAR (prior to Spring 2023) cannot be easily compared.

There are many differences between the two tests which may impact a student’s results. 

While the redesign was intended to match student experiences in the classroom, the new assessment is 100% computer-based. With the new format, it is possible that your child responded more positively or negatively to these question types.  Plano ISD, along with TEA, wants parents to be keenly aware of the fact that this was a new testing experience for all Texas public school students.