What STAAR resources should I buy? What online program is the best? What books should I read? Where are the best resources for Author's Purpose and Craft? For ECR and SCR?
All. The. Time people are asking.
Right now? The best resources you have are on the STAAR redesign website from TEA. Look at ALL the scoring guides, even if you teach a grade not listed on that material. Look at all the released new item assessments, even for the grades you don't teach. The guides, collectively, give you the best information about how TEA is designing items for all grades and all items.
Look carefully at how the passages and questions intersect. For example, when students are asked to combine sentences, look at the passage to see WHY they need to be combined. It's usually vague references with pronouns, repetition, or the connection between clauses with coordinating or subordinating conjunctions.
Look at how the passages are set up with the introductory or footnote material, especially for excerpts. Look at how the multipart items are connected. Consider the deep thematic links between excerpts and sections.
This may sound tacky, but publishers have not had adequate time or materials to prepare materials that fully match what was released. The last updates were in October of 2022. And we still haven't seen the TEKSGuide for High School. If you see stuff printed before that, you run the risk of the publisher's interpretation instead of TEA's.
Yes, students need online practice opportunities. TEA provides practice on the Cambium site, with TFAR, and Interim assessments. Let's start there.
Unpopular Opinion: The time to buy materials from publishers that matches content, rigor, and question types is not now. Perhaps next year.
Note: I have worked with content and item reviews for Sirius Education Solutions. I believe they have done a wonderful job with examining the standards, what is out there from TEA, and ways to give feedback to students in their online platform. From what I have examined in other platforms, this provides the most curated experience for students needing practice with online formats and item types. As new information is presented, the content, item types, and passages are updated and refined.
