All students enrolled in Texas public schools and open-enrollment charter schools are required to participate in the Texas Assessment Program. Students are required by both state and federal law to participate in a statewide academic achievement test. Districts are required to provide a testing opportunity for students and to account for each student who is eligible to take the assessment.
For emergent bilingual (EB) students, assessment decisions are made in accordance with agency guidelines by each student’s language proficiency assessment committee (LPAC). For students receiving Section 504 or special education services, assessment decisions are made in accordance with agency guidelines by each student’s Section 504 committee or admission, review, and dismissal (ARD) committee.
Participation Requirements for Students Enrolled in Grades 3–8
Students in grades 3–8 must be tested at their enrolled grade level as required in Texas Education Code (TEC) §39.023(a).
Exceptions to this requirement may exist for students receiving instruction above grade level. These students should take STAAR for the subjects in which they are receiving above-grade instruction if an assessment exists. For example, a student in grade 7 who is receiving instruction in grade 8 science would take the STAAR grade 8 science assessment and the STAAR grade 7 mathematics and reading assessments.
For students receiving accelerated instruction in a subject area across multiple grade levels, districts should carefully evaluate the content of the instruction as it relates to the STAAR grade-level assessments to ensure that students are provided the best opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the grade-level content. For example, if students receive instruction in all grade 6 and some grade 7 mathematics curricula during a school year, the students should be administered the STAAR grade 6 mathematics assessment. It would not be appropriate to administer the grade 7 assessment to these students since they have not been given the opportunity to learn all the grade 7 mathematics curriculum.
Students in grades 3–8 who are enrolled in a high school course will take the corresponding STAAR EOC assessment in place of their grade-level assessment in that subject area. These students must take all other STAAR grade-level assessments. For example, a grade 8 student enrolled in Algebra I will take the STAAR Algebra I assessment and the grade 8 reading, science, and social studies assessments. In addition, this student will need to take either the ACT or the SAT when he or she is in high school to fulfill federal testing requirements for mathematics.
Participation Requirements for Students Enrolled in High School Courses
Students at any grade level are required to take STAAR EOC assessments—Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology, and U.S. History—as they are completing the corresponding course since these assessments are required for high school graduation based on TEC §39.025.
Accelerated students who completed STAAR EOC testing requirements in middle school for a particular content area are required to take the ACT or the SAT when they are in high school to fulfill federal testing requirements.
STAAR Medical Exclusion
A process has been established to provide a medical exclusion from STAAR accountability calculations. This process ensures that students who have experienced a significant medical event do not impact districts’ and campuses’ participation rates.
Eligibility Criteria
For a district and campus to receive a medical exclusion from STAAR accountability for a particular student, that student must be absent during the entire testing window and all efforts to assess the student must have been unsuccessful. Students must be considered on a case-by-case basis and meet one of the specific conditions listed below. The information used to make the medical exclusion determination must reflect the student’s situation throughout the testing window.
The student is unable to receive sufficient or consistent homebound services due to medical issues. (This means that although the student is currently receiving homebound services, the homebound teacher is unable to provide services for the majority of the documented time due to the medical issues.)
The student is unable to respond to test questions due to a terminal or degenerative illness. (This means that the student’s condition is actively/currently affecting his or her daily activities to the extent that no available accommodations can reasonably mitigate those factors.)
The student is receiving extensive short-term medical treatment due to a medical emergency or severe injury (e.g., coma, major head trauma, organ failure). NOTE: Appendectomy, tonsillectomy, or broken arms or legs do not constitute a severe medical issue.
The student is unable to interact with peers or educators without the risk of infection or contamination to themselves or others (e.g., measles, respiratory illness, malaria). NOTE: Colds and flu do not constitute a significant medical emergency.
Identification Process
The information used to make the medical exclusion determination must reflect the student’s situation throughout the entire testing window. The district or charter school must review, verify, and maintain a copy of the medical documentation (e.g., licensed physician’s note) for students who meet any eligibility criteria listed in the previous section. This documentation must be maintained for five years and must be made available if the district is audited.
Once the district has verified that a student will not test due to a significant medical event, the student’s score code should be marked “A” for Absent. To ensure that the student is excluded from the districts’ and campuses’ participation rates, the district must indicate the tests for which the student met the medical exclusion criteria in the Test Information Distribution Engine (TIDE) under After Testing > Data Cleanup > STAAR Medical Exclusion.
These data will be provided to the TEA Performance Reporting Division to exclude the student from participation rate calculations.