Announcement

2024 STAAR Guidance for TIA Now Available

Spring 2024 Update 

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) will continue to provide State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Progress Measures and STAAR Transition Tables for designated STAAR-tested courses as a measure of student growth for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. TIA districts can propose, or continue to use, one or both options as third-party growth targets for select Math and Reading Language Arts courses for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school year:

  • Reading Language Arts Grades 4-8 (English)
  • Reading Language Arts Grades 4-5 (Spanish)
  • English I 
  • English II
  • Mathematics Grades 4-8 (English)
  • Mathematics Grades 4-5 (Spanish)
  • Algebra I
  • STAAR Alternative 2
  • Spanish Language RLA STAAR to an English Language RLA STAAR (STAAR Transition Table ONLY)

Districts should consider the following, in addition to TEA’s preliminary 2024 Accountability Guidance and STAAR Progress Measure Guide when determining which method for student growth best aligns to local context:

  • STAAR Progress Measure
    • Now includes English I as an applicable course.
    • Does not calculate growth for students moving from Spanish to English language RLA STAAR.
    • At a student-level, the STAAR Progress Measure provides the most reliable comparison of year-to-year growth using a gain score as the predictor.
  • STAAR Transition Tables
    • Are used for calculating school Accountability Domain 2A Academic Growth.
    • Allows for calculating student growth for Spanish to English STAAR testers.
    • May provide additional opportunities for students to show growth with five performance-level indicators: High/Low Did Not Meet, Approaches Grade Level, Meets Grade Level, Masters Grade Level.

Guidance for Participating Districts

The TIA team has developed guidance for districts to plan a successful local designation system implementation using STAAR Progress Measures, STAAR Transition Tables, or both. This guidance applies to participating districts with full system approval and districts with accepted System Applications (TIA Cohorts A-F). 

Fall 2024 Data Submission Guidance

Districts previously approved for the use of STAAR Transition Tables in eligible categories will have the option to submit 2023-24 STAAR Progress Measure data in lieu of 2023-24 STAAR Transition Table data for eligible courses during the fall 2024 data submission window. While this change would not require districts to submit an Expansions and Modifications Application in 2023-24, districts using STAAR to measure expected growth in any eligible category will be required to report and describe which method was used for 2023-24 using additional questions added to the District Info tab of the 2024 data submission template. More information can be found on the Data Submission page of the TIA website.

Ongoing System Implementation Guidance

Districts approved to use STAAR Transition Tables before the start of the 2023-24 school year are recommended to do the following.

  1. Review the district’s approved process in the TIA system application for calculating EOY student growth using STAAR Progress Measure and/or STAAR Transition Tables. This can be found on the Weighting and Pre-/Post-Test tabs.
  2. Determine whether any statutory changes to the local designation system will be proposed and take action accordingly to meet required deadlines:
Option 1 – Maintain STAAR Transition tablesOption 2 – Move forward with STAAR Progress Measures
If the district has approved STAAR Transition Tables and wants to continue its use in 2024-25 as described in the application and does not need to make any additional expansions or statutory modifications to the local designation system, the district does not need to take further action before implementing in 2024-25.If the district has approved STAAR Transition Tables and wants to use STAAR Progress Measure instead of Transition Tables in approved eligible categories and does not need to make any additional expansions or statutory modifications to the local designation system, the district does not need to take further action before implementing in 2024-25.
  1. Communicate with local stakeholders which process for setting expected growth in eligible categories will be used, especially if any changes to the local designation system are implemented.

Frequently Asked Questions 

What is STAAR Progress Measure?

The STAAR Progress Measure provides information about the amount of improvement or academic growth a student has made from year to year by evaluating a student’s gain score—the difference between the score a student achieved in the prior year and the score a student achieved in the current year. Individual student progress is then categorized as Accelerated, Expected, or Limited progress. See the STAAR Progress Measure website for more details.

What are STAAR Transition Tables?

Transition Tables measure student academic growth in Reading Language Arts (RLA) and Mathematics for accountability independently from the STAAR Progress Measure. The Transition Table model is used to determine academic growth for Domain 2A. Cut points for high/low Did Not Meet and Approaches Grade Level are available for each applicable grade-level and subject-area based on standard deviations of scale scores. To calculate a growth score, students must meet the accountability subset and have a non-zero STAAR assessment result in both the prior year and the current year. See Chapter 3—School Progress Domain for more details.

What is the difference between STAAR Transition Tables and STAAR Progress Measure?

STAAR Progress Measure calculates growth through a gain score model while STAAR Transition Tables calculates growth by comparing a standard deviation in scale scores from year to year. Both models produce data for Annual Growth and fulfill Texas Education Code, §39.304 which requires the use of a student’s previous years’ performance data on STAAR to determine the student’s expected annual improvement.

When will STAAR Progress Measure data be available to districts?

STAAR Progress Measure data will be available this summer through the Centralized Reporting System (CRS) on 5/24/2024 (EOC) and 6/4/2024 (3rd-8th).  Additionally, districts can use the 2024 Administrative Data Files (ADF), available through Cambium’s Secure File Center (formerly known as the TIDE Secure Inbox) on 6/4/2024 for EOC data and 6/11/2024 for 3rd-8th STAAR data. 

Note:  The advantage of using CRS is that it gives districts early access to the data to use for planning purposes. The disadvantage of CRS is that data in CRS is dynamic and if there are any changes to students (Ex: A student moved from District A to District B after the test administration or a student un-enrolled from school), the data moves with the student and the previous district will not have access to the student’s data anymore. Districts calculating SPM data for fall data submission are encouraged to use the ADF for a comprehensive view of student growth data during the 2023-24 school year.

When will STAAR Transition Table data be available to districts?

STAAR Transition Table data will be available this summer through CRS on 5/24 (EOC) and 6/4 (3rd-8th). Additionally, districts will receive the Reporting Student Data File for STAAR EOC on 7/10/2024 and for 3rd-8th grade STAAR on 7/19/2024. Please review the 2023-24 Assessment Calendar of Events.