Answers About STAAR Readability and Vocabulary

I participated in a prompt study at TEA recently. While there, I learned about some important resources that are used for evaluating passages that are chosen for STAAR. Some - we already knew: There is an entire PROCESS that is used to make sure everything is in line with what students will need developmentally and in terms of fairness. The primary tool used in this process is the TEACHER'S decisions. We should be proud of that.

Several readability measures are used, including Flesh-Kincaid grade level, The ETS Text Evaluator, and Lexiles. Qualitative judgement are used as well. (The ETS Text Evaluator was new to me.)

Specific word lists are also used for passages, questions, and prompts. These help ensure that the vocabulary won't interfere with the content that is being assessed. You might check out these resources. I didn't know about any of them.

EDL Reading Core Vocabulary 

The Children's Writer's Word Book

The Living Word Vocabulary, the Words We Know: A National Vocabulary Inventory

The American Heritage Dictionary   This is the resource that is used to build the dictionary items for the assessment too.