Reference no: EM133712660

Homework: Teachers Values- STAAR Testing/Release Test

Objective: Learners will complete a standardized assessment to gain first-hand experience of what is required of their students. Learners will be able to identify Readiness and Supporting standards in a STAAR test and identify personal strengths and weaknesses to see how they convert into raw scores and expected performance levels.

State assessment play an important role in the classroom today, and the stakes are high. At some levels, students must pass these exams to pass to the next grade or course. Administrators are held accountable for how well their campus performs. Districts are "graded" by the state as to how well the district performs as a whole. The Texas Education Agency created a system that holds teachers and certification programs accountable for how students perform.

Students, teachers, certification programs, campus administrators, and district administration are all held accountable for creating an education system where every student is placed with an effective educator.

No matter what subject or grade you plan to teach, you need to have knowledge of the STAAR test (State Assessment of Academic Readiness).

As an educator, TEA and the Federal Government have recognized student annual growth as a priority in the accountability of students, teachers, campuses, and districts. Student growth measures validate all students do not come to our classroom with the same skill sets and understanding of standards and teachers should not be judged as such. Each student has a personal ID number if they are enrolled in a public school in Texas. The student's performance can be monitored for each year the student takes the State exams regardless if they move from one school to another. The intent of the growth score is to provide fairness to the teachers and monitor the expected annual or more growth of all students. The following three informal videos we created should help explain some of the foundational processes used in monitoring your performance as a teacher with student learning progress using the STAAR examination.

Raw Score Conversions Spring 2019 REV.

TEA has an entire website section devoted to the STAAR with various resources and publications. Take a few minutes to preview the site to see information that is available to parents and teachers

Go to the TEA website.

1) Click on the Student Testing and Accountability tab at the top
2) Click on Testing
3) Browse around on the site to see resources and information that is available

Texas Education Agency.

In the next two activities, you will get a chance to practice taking sample released STAAR test questions to provide you with the first-hand experience with the type of questions asked on the state assessments and get a feeling for the level of rigor required.

In addition, you will be provided the correct answers and an explanation of why students may have chosen the answers they selected.

Here is a YouTube video "Finding Q1,Q3, and IQR ( Interquartile Range)" of instruction as an example of one of the math problems you will do in the quiz.

Task

In this exercise, you will assume two different roles.

1. First, you will be in the role of a student taking a small sample of the STAAR test. You will take two TEA abbreviated sample released tests in 6th-grade math and in 6th-grade reading.

2. Second, you will be in the role of the teacher. After you complete the test you will be able to see the correct answers posted in the quiz.

Write a reflection on any problems you missed (up to 3), on how you could see a student missing one of these problems and why. In the teacher role, what was the thinking behind the answer that was provided on the test?

We find this a critical practice in assessing student learning.

"What were they thinking?"

The intent is to "think about your thinking" and see the importance of teachers as leaders continuously doing this with their students after assessments so they understand how the students may have been thinking about the question per the response they provided.

During planning, you stepped through the process of thinking about potential misconceptions, and created a plan on how to address these up front.

GREAT teachers think about learning from the student experience.