A process and resources for authentic STAAR remediation, response, instruction, and assessment: An English I Case Study and Suggestions

Premise: Before we collect more data, let's intervene on the data we have. 

Premise: Our work does not have to look like a STAAR test. 

Premise: There's a lot of thinking and work to be done BEFORE you can answer a question. Most of that isn't a TEK. 

Premise: Answering multiple choice questions is a completely different skill than any of our TEKS. Answering questions is about thinking and reasoning that you do while reading the source text and while analyzing the question and choices.

Premise: The English course is essentially the SAME course for all grades. Hate me if you want, but listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and thinking are the same K-12. The only difference is text complexity. 

Premise: Thinkers must be able to examine a text and make decisions without the use of questions and in their own writing and that of others. 

Premise: Skills and content are best practiced and mastered when we mess with and apply those things in our own writing.

Explanation and Process: 

Prioritizing what we have for specific purposes

• Use the 2023 released exam for the previous grade level for analysis and instructional material. 
• Use the 2023 ECR and SCR samples. Use them for exemplars. Use them for sample texts to revisit/revise. Give them to students so they can grapple with their responses (or lack of response) and improve. 
• Use the 2022 full length practice exam for crafting common based assessments or formative assessments. (I know, it's not psychometrically aligned, but it's what we have. You could also use and revise some of the previous STAAR exams.) 
• Save the 2023 released exam for the current grade for the benchmark in December or January.

Resources for English I:

For Instruction:

Analysis and Tools for 8th Grade Released Exam

Powerpoint (in draft to show the process, more to come as time permits) 

For Assessment

The Benefits of Learning to Play an Instrument: Text and Sample Prompts for ECR, SCR

2023 STAAR Extended Constructed Response Analysis, Interpretations, and Recommendations

The extended constructed response seems like a hinge-point because success depends on what kids DO while they are reading and responding. Success on these items can be a gateway to success on the other items. 

So - here's some things to think about as you are interpreting results, designing interventions, and planning initial instruction. 

By the way - If you didn't know, you have access to ALL the writing students have done on the exam. It's important to print those out for the kids you have. Revision is the best way to improve writing. And it's a good place to start in helping students become aware of their thinking and reasoning. Eventually, we'll have pdfs of it all. Right now, we're having to clip, cut, and paste. Your testing coordinator will be able to give you access in the system to see student results and will have the pdfs eventually. 

Here's a hyperlinked pdf of the analysis that you can use in your plc's. 

 

So many ECR Zeros on STAAR? Why?

Check out these scorepoint graphs: 

Why so many zeros? Well...it was new. And 3rd graders are NINE. But perhaps we need to look at the obvious...or what is obviously hidden before we start diving into TEKS.

Here's an analogy - did you know that if you break open a cottonwood twig, that there is a STAR of Texas hidden inside? (Project Learning Tree has a cool lesson about it here.) The star was there all along, but you didn't know it was there. 

In the TECH world, they study the "user experience." Kids all over the state told us that they didn't have an ECR on the assessment. Why did they think that? Remember - most kiddos are taking this test on a chromebook tiny screen with no mouse. Here's what they saw: 

Semantics: 

Students are asked to write an argumentative essay. Not an ECR. Could the problem be semantics? Kids need to know they will be asked to write a composition or an essay. (And not an S A. Before my kids saw the word typed out, they thought I was just saying two letters.) ECR is an assessment item type vocabulary and is not used for kids on the test. Same goes for passages - that's what we call them. That's not the academic language used on the assessment - STAAR says "selections." Our academic synonyms might be causing some of the confusion. 

User Experience: 

And...did they SEE a place to type the essay? Sure, there's a little arrow that says to scroll down. The scrollbar that says there is more to see doesn't show up until you hover over the right hand side of the screen on some computers. On other computers it does. 

That's a wonky user experience for something kids aren't familiar with. With which kids aren't familiar. Whatever. You get the point. 

Our solution: Kids need to be beyond familiar with the TECH elements. They need to be fluent with them. And our words need to match their experience - "You'll be asked to write and essay or a composition. You'll need to scroll down or use your arrow keys to see where you need to type." 

Font and Text Features: 

Another problem is the way the paired passages appear. 

See how these scroll on the same "page"? It looks like "Laws for Less Trash" might be a subheading for "Rewards for Recycling." 

That's a problem. Kids need to make sure they are attending to the bold material at the beginning of the passage and know that "selections" means two different passages. Another semantics issue. 

    But this is also a text feature issue. I didn't see any subheadings in the third grade test, so I had to go to 4th grade. 

See how the titles of passage are center justified and of a certain size font? Now compare to the subheading: left justified and a smaller font. These are text features that serve as cues for readers about what the author is doing as well as when a new passage/selection appears. 

It will be important to teach kids how to understand and decode the text features and navigation elements (like that little almost invisible grey arrow on the right hand side of each screen that says there's more below and you need to scroll down.) 

Using Cambium Components for Self-Regulation: 

The very top row is designed to help students understand and see how much of the test they have completed with the blue bar and the percentage complete. They know how much energy they need to use and how much time to save. But they can also see where they have and have not answered questions. The little red triangle tells kids where they have NOT answered questions. This would have been a huge cue to students that they'd missed answering the essay question. But did they know it was there? Were they fluent in using the tools to monitor their progress and to check for completion? 

Before we start digging into TEKS (and especially accountability ratings and class rosters), let's do some talking with kids about their experience and their approach when taking the exam. Our solutions can start with modeling how the platform works and using similar tools during daily classroom instruction so that students are fluent with technology experiences beyond a familiarity with a tutorial or mention of the tools. Let's make sure students understand the user experience and how to use the tools to enhance their comprehension and demonstration of grade level curriculum. Until then, they're walking in a Texas creekbed under the cottonwoods, not knowing about the hidden treasures all around them.