Paper by Request Administration
House Bill 1225, 88th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2023, added Section 39.02342 to the Texas Education Code, allowing for a new optional process for districts to provide a paper administration of STAAR to up to three percent of their students. Districts have the flexibility to implement this new optional process and gather paper administration requests as appropriate for their school. However, requests must be accepted based on the earliest submission date.
The number of students who are provided a paper by request administration of STAAR may not exceed three percent of the number of eligible students enrolled in the district who are administered each assessment. For example, if a district has 500 students who are eligible for the STAAR grade 3 mathematics and RLA assessments, the district testing coordinator may indicate up to 15 students as eligible for a paper by request administration of the STAAR grade 3 mathematics assessment and up to 15 students for the STAAR grade 3 RLA assessment. Similarly, if a district has 300 students who are eligible for the December STAAR Algebra I assessment, the district coordinator may indicate up to 9 students as eligible for a December paper by request administration of that assessment.
Prepare for Paper by Request Administrations, as applicable
District coordinators must:
❏ Review Eligibility Requirements
District testing personnel may provide a paper administration of STAAR to any student whose parent, guardian, or teacher in the applicable subject area requests a paper version. The parent, guardian, or teacher must submit the request for a paper administration of STAAR to the district no later than September 15 for the December administration and no later than December 1 for the spring administration. The only criterion that is required to be met is submitting the request to the district by the deadline.
The following assessments are available for students participating in a paper by request administration:
STAAR grades 3–8 and EOC regular print
STAAR Spanish grades 3–5 regular print
It is important to note that the number of students who receive a paper by request administration is separate and distinct from the students who are eligible for a special paper administration of STAAR. Students who are eligible for a special paper administration of STAAR are not counted in the maximum three percent of students who are administered a paper by request administration, but both groups of students are included in the total number of eligible students enrolled in the district who are administered each assessment. If a student requires a paper version of the assessment with embedded supports, large print, or braille, refer to the Special Administration of an Assessment page.
❏ Designate Eligible Students
For a student to receive a paper by request administration, the district coordinator or the district testing assistant must ensure that the Paper By Request field is set to “Yes” no later than October 5, 2023, for the December administration and December 14, 2023, for the spring administration. Paper by request orders for the spring administration of STAAR will carry over to the June administration.
The Paper By Request field can be changed only by the district coordinator or the district testing assistant. This field can be manually changed for each student using the Add Student or View/Edit/Export Student tasks from the Student Information module in TIDE. It can also be changed in a bulk upload using the template available through the Upload Additional Student Fields task. If a user with a different role submits this template with values for the Paper By Request field, the submission will be rejected with a validation error.
If more than three percent of the number of eligible students enrolled in the district who are administered each assessment are marked for a paper by request administration, the district coordinator will be notified.
To change a student’s test mode, district personnel must select “Paper” in the appropriate Test Mode field. Then district personnel must select “Regular Print” in the STAAR & TELPAS Paper Test Format field. District and campus testing personnel must select the Test Mode and paper test format by the deadline listed in the Calendar of Events.
For a student who is eligible for a paper by request administration of STAAR Spanish, the district or campus testing personnel must enter “Spanish” in the Presentation field. This will ensure that the Spanish version of STAAR is available in DEI to submit the student’s responses.
Submitting Student Responses
For paper by request administrations, students should be instructed to record their responses in their test booklets. Authorized district staff members must enter student responses into DEI for the responses to be scored. District personnel are responsible for submitting student responses into DEI by 11:59 p.m. (CT) on the last day of each specific testing window. Refer to the specific test administration instructions and the Directions for Submitting Student Responses in DEI page for more information.