Source: TEA “This Week in Performance Reporting: Oct. 23, 2020
2020–2021 STAAR and STAAR Alternate 2 Progress Measure
The following notification, which was sent to district testing coordinators and ESC staff earlier last week provides background information about STAAR progress measures and their use for this year.
The STAAR progress measure is calculated based on a student’s gain score—the scale score difference between the current year and the prior year, while STAAR Alternate 2 progress measures are determined by a student’s stage change from the prior year to the current year. Since STAAR testing was suspended for spring and summer 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19, this year’s calculation differs slightly and measures progress across
Due to the gap year, it would be a rare scenario for students enrolled in grade 4 in the 2020–2021 school year to be enrolled in grade 3 in 2018–2019 school year. Therefore, STAAR progress measures will not be calculated for grade 4 students. English II progress measures for the 2020–2021 school year will use 2018–2019 school year English I scale scores as the prior year data..
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 2020–2021 STAAR progress measure will be included on STAAR Report Cards and in the Student Portal to help parents gauge their child’s academic performance from 2018–2019 to 2020–2021. Similar to previous years, STAAR progress measures will not be included on STAAR Alternate 2 Report Cards.
When interpreting this year’s STAAR progress measure outcomes, districts and parents should be mindful of the unusual instructional, social interruption and learning conditions of the 2020–2021 school year, as well as that this year’s STAAR progress measure calculation varies from the traditional adjacent prior year to current year methodology. Further, districts should exercise caution when using this year’s outcomes for evaluation or planning purposes (e.g., district/campus goal setting) and should use this data point in conjunction with other, more stable data points. Districts
should not use this data point to measure student growth for the Teacher Incentive Allotment..
In addition, the Parent’s Guide to the STAAR Progress Measure will be updated to include information about the 2020–2021 STAAR progress measure in early 2021..
If you have any questions, please contact the Performance Reporting Division at (512) 463-9704 or
Additional Update:
In the communication regarding the progress measure, it mentioned that 2020–2021 English II progress would be based on progress made since the student's 2018–2019 English I end-of-course (EOC) assessment. On an individual student basis, most current sophomores would not have had English I in 2018–2019. They would have been in 8th grade. How is progress calculated for these students?
For English II, if a student took English I in 2018–2019 and English II in 2020–2021 as first-time testers, this student would receive a progress measure. Since the administration of EOC assessments is course based and not grade based, this is possible (although we do not anticipate many students that fall into this group).
For English II, the “prior” year test is always English I. There is no progress measure from grade 3–8 reading to English II.