Some Students Won’t Have to Pass the STAAR Test To Move On To The Next Grade
Several thousand students who took the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness test, or STAAR, experienced glitches during the test, and because of that the passing requirement to move on to the next grade will be waived.
More than 40,000 students who took the test last month were booted off of the network during the computerized test, and earlier this month it happened again with another 29,000 students across the state experiencing problems.
Because of the glitches, the company that administers the test is being fined, and 5th and 8th graders who took the test will still move on to the next grade even if they got a score that was below the passing mark. And, testing issues will be considered when the state calculates schools' campus and district academic accountability ratings too.
The vendor is facing a huge fine because of all this. The company in charge of the test will have to pay $100,000, and the Texas Education Agency said they're going to re-bid the contract in June and potentially replace the New Jersey-based company whose contract ends in 2019.
The STAAR tests have a reputation for being stressful already, and now this. But at least the state knows there were some things beyond the students' control during the test that could have affected scores, and they're going to take that into consideration when they get the final results.
Now, have a great summer! No more worrying about test results until the fall, okay?