New STAAR scores are in and while they may look pretty similar to last year most education leaders around the state are calling them a win. NBC 5 education reporter Wayne Carter helps break it all down.
At first glance many of the STAAR test scores from year to year look similar, a few points better or worse across several categories, but there’s a big factor at play in STAAR this year. Last year's test was radically and completely different from the one the year before.
"In the past, they were just multiple-choice questions. And this year, there were over a dozen different types of item types that students were taking. And it was the first year that it was an online test with some embedded, even cross-curricular reading passages. We knew that there was going to be a bit of an implementation debt," said Angelica Ramsey, superintendent of the Fort Worth ISD.
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WATCH HERE"Everybody was expecting a decline. We were actually expecting declines simply because of the new test design. So the fact that we have, again, what some people might consider not huge gains, I think this says that parents, teachers, community, and definitely our students rose to the occasion," said Stephanie Elizalde, superintendent of the Dallas ISD.
The leaders of the two largest school districts in North Texas, the Dallas and Fort Worth ISD, are both encouraged by the numbers they saw in many instances. Math scores were stronger for kids, they were able to show their work and the method they used to solve problems. Tests were graded by teachers rather than a computer.
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SIGN UP Reading required essays and long answers being written which was tougher than choosing multiple-choice answers, but for the most part, those scores held steady. Both leaders just got their hands on the numbers but are eager to break them down and use them to work on improvement.
"We had 14 areas across where we had double-digit gains. Those are bright spots for us to look at. Now's the time where we start to dig deeper, look at specific campuses, look all the way down to school level student level, so that we can start replicating what worked and providing support where it's needed," said Ramsey.
"Fourth-grade mathematics at the 'meets' level, again, above pre-pandemic, and actually, even at the state, those are things that are really hard to achieve in districts that look like us," said Elizalde.
Carter In The Classroom
Focusing on unique things school districts are doing to help children succeed.
Both districts unveiled new missions this school year with Dallas doubling down on a lack of focus on teaching to the test and Fort Worth creating a unified culture and system of teacher support.
Schools everywhere are not giving a lot of weight to these ever-changing tests, but happy to see the numbers didn’t significantly drop.
