Should you wish to be removed from this email list or if someone in your district needs to be added, please contact Jessica Hassell at jhassell@esc6.net.

Calendar of Events:
The 2020–2021 Texas Student Assessment Program Calendar of Events posters will arrive in districts by September 11, 2020. Each Education Service Center (ESC) will receive ten copies. Districts will receive ten copies per district and three copies per campus. To request additional copies, contact the Texas Assessment Support Center. An electronic copy of the Calendar of Events is now posted in the District and Campus Coordinator Resources on the 2020–2021 Calendar webpage.

Student Information Retrieval System (SIRS) Request:
SIRS is useful in obtaining assessment results for students who are now in your school district. SIRS requests include results from the current testing year after scores for an administration are posted to the STAAR Assessment Management System. For SIRS requests for grades 3–8, districts may receive up to two years of data. Because of the cancellation of the spring and summer 2020 STAAR administrations, districts will receive results from 2018 and 2019 for students with a testing history in those years. Cumulative results are provided for students with STAAR end-of-course (EOC) testing history.

The "To the Administrator Addressed" on July 27th addressed a waiver for SSI promotion requirements. If you have not read the notice, please click on the link to view.

Students in grade 5 and 8 will only be required to test for math and reading once regardless of a pass or fail. Student promotion and retention for grades 5 and 8 should be determined just as all other grade levels are determined for the 2020-2021 school year.

Please note, not ALL SSI requirements have been waived.

There are only two pieces that are being waived this year:

1) promotion/retention determination and

2) three administrations.

SSI requirements that still need to be met are:

• End-of-year notice if districts received waiver for delay from 2019–20
• Beginning-of-year notice
• 10-day reporting of students’ results
• Accelerated instruction

The TEA Student Success Initiative division now has updated SSI forms for district use. There are only 7 Student Success Initiative forms for the 2020–2021 school year. There are English versions and Spanish versions for a total of 14 attachments (located at the bottom of this newsletter).

1) M/R.B—Beginning of year notice

2) M.1—Student result, passing math

3) M.2—Student result, not passing math

4) R.1—Student result, passing reading

5) R.2—Student result, not passing reading

6) M.A—End of year notice for at-risk students math

7) R.A—End of year notice for at-risk students in reading

Question: If a student received COVID waivers for Algebra, Biology and English I for the spring/summer 2020, could they fail English 2 EOC and US History EOC and still graduate under an IGC (if all requirements of the IGC are met?)

Answer: Yes, IGC requires the student to have failed not more than two of the tests the student is responsible for passing. Since the student received a waiver for three tests, he/she is now only responsible for two tests. See Assessment Guidance #8C1.

District coordinators must train campus testing coordinators who are administering the December STAAR assessments in the fall prior to this administration. It is recommended that these campus coordinators are trained by November 20, 2020.

Campus coordinators must train test administrators who are administering the December STAAR assessments in the fall prior to this administration. It is recommended that test administrators are trained by December 4, 2020.

Staff Identification (ID) Updates:
The window to update TX Unique Staff ID associations for the December 2020 STAAR EOC administration is September 1–25, 2020. Updates to TX Unique Staff IDs must be made directly in the STAAR Assessment Management System either manually or via a file upload. All staff ID updates applied in the system at the close of the window will be reflected in the Teacher Portal on October 7, 2020. See Section 6.1.10 Update Teacher TX Unique Staff ID Association to Test Registration after an Administration in the Assessment Management System User’s Guide for more information and detailed instructions.

OOD and OOS Test Site Directory:
The out-of-district (OOD) and out-of-school (OOS) Test Site Registration form for the December 2020 administration is now available through September 4, 2020. Districts must register each participating OOD/OOS test site directly in the Assessment Management System. See Section 4.2 Volunteer Test Sites of the STAAR Assessment Management System User’s Guide for more information and detailed instructions.

TEA is launching the TFAR, which is a new, free, optional, online tool consisting of an item bank aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). This optional tool is designed to support teachers in gaining real-time, formative feedback on student learning as instruction occurs. Teachers will be able to create and deliver quizzes and analyze results to help inform instructional choices such as making immediate lesson plan adjustments or providing specific interventions for students at the level of individual standards. TFAR can be used as part of on-campus or virtual instruction.

TFAR is meant to supplement and support existing district resources and formative assessment practices. Quizzes built using this tool should be combined with a broader set of classroom formative practices that are part of a coherent instructional framework.

TFAR will be available starting August 31, 2020. Initially, the item bank within TFAR will contain STAAR released items, but, over time, additional items will be added. Teachers will be able to create their own TEKS-aligned items to administer within the platform.

To read the frequently asked questions, please visit the Texas Formative Assessment Resource webpage.

STAAR Interim Assessments, an optional online tool to help educators monitor progress and predict student performance, will continue for the 2020–2021 school year for all STAAR tested grades and subjects. In response to COVID-19, TEA has provided additional support and guidance for districts who would like students to complete an interim assessment at home.

To see recordings of previous webinars, register for upcoming webinars, and view the frequently asked questions, please visit the STAAR Interim Assessments web page.

The 2020-2021 Assessment Webinars have been posted at www.texasassessment.gov. If you are a new district test coordinator, these are webinars hosted by ETS (STAAR vendor) and Pearson (STAAR ALT 2 and TELPAS vendor). I highly recommend you register for these webinars and/or pass the information along to those who need it. By registering you will receive the presentation ahead of the webinar. If for some reason you miss a webinar, the recording is posted a week later.

• August 11th @1:30 Interim Assessment Updates and Overview - Recording Available
• August 13th @1:30 Interim Student Registration - Recording Available
• August 18th @1:30 Classroom Teachers: Interpreting Student Interim Scores
• August 20th @1:30 A Deep Dive into the Online Reporting Suite (ORS)
• August 25th @1:30 December 2020 Student Registration Updates
• Sept 1st @1:30 Registration for New District Test Coordinators
• Sept 15th @1:30 Fall Activities for the December 2020 STAAR Administration

The online testing window is extended for both STAAR 3–8 assessments and STAAR end-of-course (EOC) assessments:

• two weeks for the December 2020 STAAR EOC assessments (December 8–18),
• five weeks for the April 2021 STAAR grades 3–8 and EOC assessments (April 6–May 7),
• five weeks for the May 2021 STAAR EOC assessments (May 4–June 4),
• five weeks for the May 2021 STAAR grades 3–8 assessments (May 11–June 11), and
• two weeks for the June 2021 STAAR grades 3–8 and EOC assessments (June 22–July 2).

No formal changes will be made to the current Accountability System until the end of the calendar year per Commissioner Morath. There are too many unknowns regarding the reopening of schools to make decisions now. TEA, ATAC and APAC are working through various scenarios to make the best decisions regarding Accountability for 2020-2021.

All districts and campuses are labeled Not Rated: Declared State of Disaster for 2020. Visit TXSchools.gov to view the 2019 accountability rating reports for each district, campus, and open-enrollment charter school in the state of Texas.

The 2020 College, Career, and Military Readiness and Graduation Rate reports will be available in the fall with the Texas Academic Performance Report (TAPR).

A downloadable spreadsheet of statewide 2020 ratings, school improvement identification status, and demographic information is available in Excel.

For more information, see the TEA website at: https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/accountability/academic-accountability/performance-reporting/2020-accountability-rating-system

Data reported within the time periods below are included in 2020 College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) as reflected in the CCMR Verifier for school year 2018­–19 annual graduates. While all districts and campuses earned a Not Rated: Declared State of Disaster label for 2020 accountability, 2020 CCMR data will be used to determine CCMR Outcomes Bonuses and will be reported in the 2019–20 Texas Academic Performance Report. Additionally, this data could potentially be used in future accountability cycles if a district or campus requires small numbers analysis or if the CCMR methodology is revised to evaluate multiple years of data due to COVID-19.

As a reminder, the CCMR Tracker includes students who were in grades 9–12 during school year 2019–20. Indicators are credited if earned within date ranges provided below for students beginning with grade 9 enrollment. TSI assessments are the only CCMR indicator that may be earned prior to grade 9. Indicators reported upon graduation (U.S. Armed Forces enlistment, IEP and workforce readiness graduates, and special education graduate with advanced graduation plan) do not appear in the Tracker.

Intervention & Submission calendars were posted on August 13th on the TEA website. The calendars may be accessed at the links below.

• Visit the District Accountability Intervention and Guidance webpage and choose District Interventions Matrix.
• Visit the Campus Accountability Intervention and Guidance webpage and choose Campus Interventions Matrix.

Due to COVID-19-related uncertainty about school schedules, the local accountability team is adopting a flexible approach to district development of a local accountability plan. The Local Accountability Guide provides information about plan requirement and example components.

Districts wishing to learn more about the local accountability system and how to develop a district local accountability plan can participant in an hour-long overview webinar with time for Q & A.

Registration links are now available for webinar dates in September.

• Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1 pm
• Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 9 am
• Friday, September 11, 2020 at 11 am
• Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 2 pm
• Wednesday, September 30, 2020 at 3 pm

Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
1701 N. Congress Avenue, Room 3-122A
Austin, Texas 78701
Phone: (512) 463-9536
Fax: (512) 463-9302

ETS Customer Service
(STAAR Grades 3–8, EOC, and Interim Assessments):
Phone:(855) 333-7770
Email:
STAAR3-8@ets.org
STAAREOC@ets.org

Pearson's Customer Service Center
(STAAR Alternate 2, TELPAS. and TELPAS Alternate):
Phone: (800) 627-0225
Email: TxPearsonAccess@support.pearson.com

Jessica Hassell, M.Ed.

Assessment, Accountability & School Improvement Specialist

Regional Testing Coordinator

Region 6 Education Service Center

Email: jhassell@esc6.net
Website: https://www.esc6.net/
Location: 3332 Montgomery Rd, Huntsville, TX, USA
Phone: 936-435-8355