September 2, 2025 Assessment Smore

Updated Directions for Accessing the Practice & Released Tests

TEA Interim TASI and Information

Considering using the premade TEKS aligned Interim Assessments for your district? Interested in more information? Make sure you watch the TEA TASI live on Thursday, September 4th at 10:00 am. Register Here. The recording will be placed in the Learning Management System, LMS, at a later time. I will be the panelist for Region 17 in the TASI, so if you have questions when watching the TASI, email them to me and I will pass them on to TEA. More information can be found on the TEA STAAR Interim Assessments Website.

To better align with instructional practices, TEA has made a few minor policies changes for STAAR Interim Assessments. Students can take mathematics and reading language arts STAAR Interim Assessments twice per testing window. Students who complete Opportunity 1 of a science or social studies interim assessment must wait at least 60 days before completing Opportunity 2. If a student needs to retake an interim assessment, the test administrator must submit an appeal request via TIDE.

Stand Alone Field Test

Almost all of the districts in Region 17 were selected to administer the required Stand Alone Field test. DTCs were notified in their Secure Inbox on August 8th.

February 2026 Administration

As previously announced, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) will conduct a stand-alone field test for STAAR reading language arts (RLA) assessments to ensure that sufficient extended constructed-response questions are developed for future state assessments. Extended constructed-response questions are field-tested separately, instead of embedded in the operational assessments, to lessen the burden on students. The stand-alone field test will be administered online only and includes the following grades/subjects and courses:

RLA grades 3–8; English I and English II Spanish RLA grades 3–5

Participating school systems may administer the stand-alone field test on any day during the testing window, February 2–6, 2026. Campuses should schedule 2–3 hours for the administration of the RLA field tests. Field-test forms will include one extended constructed-response item at most. The remainder of each form may vary in the type of test questions presented (e.g., multipart, multiple choice, multiselect, hot text, short constructed response). TEA will provide more specific details about the field test in the test administration instructions available by December 2025. No paper test booklets or other print materials will be sent to school systems, nor will school systems receive data or students’ scores from this field-test administration.

Implementation of the New Science TEKS in STAAR

The new TEKS for science were adopted by the State Board of Education in 2021 and implemented into classrooms starting with the 2023–24 school year. The new science TEKS will be fully implemented into the STAAR science assessments beginning in spring 2026. The assessed curriculum documents, blueprints, and middle school reference materials that were posted on January 15, 2025, have been finalized and are available on the STAAR Science Resources web page. Transition year documents remain in effect for the December 2025 STAAR Biology administration and will be removed from the web page after that administration. Due to the shorter STAAR science blueprints, science strand information will not be provided in the Centralized Reporting System (CRS) or on summary reports or student report cards beginning in spring 2026.

Spring 2025 Constructed Response Scoring Guides are posted on the content area STAAR Resources webpages

Spring 2025 STAAR and TELPAS tests have been released on the Practice and Released Tests site.

Spring 2025 STAAR Answer Keys, Item Rationales, and Student Expectations are posted on the STAAR Released Test Questions webpage.

Spring 2025 STAAR Alternate 2 assessments, including Secure Test Instructions and Student Test Booklets, are available as PDFs on the STAAR Alternate 2 Released Test Questions webpage. The STAAR Alt 2 FAQ Updated as well

Spring 2025 TELPAS Answer Keys and Scoring Guides are available on the TELPAS Released Test Questions webpage.

ESC 17 Student Assessment Training Dates

State Assessment Training- It is time for the State Assessment Trainings at ESC 17! This is a required trainings for DTCs, but open to and encouraged for any CTC or Instructional Leader who wants this information first hand. We will share updates for the 2025-2026 testing year and do an overview training and updates for STAAR, STAAR Alt, TELPAS, TELPAS Alt, Accommodations, and Test Security. We can't wait for you to join us!

Tuesday, September 30th 9:00 am-4:00 pm Session #1070964

Wednesday, October 1st 9:00 am-4:00 pm Session #1070965 (repeat)

State Accommodation Review - This half day training will be focused on the accommodation updates to the DCCR (District and Campus Coordinator Resource). We will spend time on each accommodation type and go through the specifics for testing. This training will benefit anyone on the testing (DTC, CTC) or accommodation (Diag, SPED, 504) side of testing.

Tuesday, October 21 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Session #1090358 (morning)

Christa Ritchey is our new Accountability Specialist! You can reach her with questions at critchey@esc17.net. 806-281-5716. You can meet her and hear from her and Janet at our Accountability Symposium on September 3rd! We hope to see you there. Register today!

TEA Repeals Requirement for Grade 7 Reading Diagnostic Instrument