Pettus ISD

House Bill 8 eliminated the restriction on Monday testing for week one of STAAR testing windows. Therefore, for additional scheduling flexibility, STAAR testing windows in the Student Assessment Testing Calendar have been updated to include Monday of week one.

For the spring 2027 STAAR administration, the Texas Education Agency has scheduled a two-week testing window for each content-area grouping: mathematics, reading language arts, and science and social studies. TEA highly recommends that district coordinators plan to test during the first week of each content-area testing window to ensure that all students have an opportunity to test in case of technical, weather, or emergency issues and to allow for make-up testing. TEA also recommends that data be submitted in the Response Entry system as soon as possible after students have finished testing to ensure processing before the window closes and that district coordinators reserve the last two to three days of each content-area testing window to complete data submission in Response Entry. All students must be accounted for and all assessments completed and processed in the system by 11:59 p.m. (CT) on the last day of the two-week window for each content-area grouping. That is, all RLA data must be entered before the close of the RLA testing window, all mathematics data must be entered before the close of the mathematics testing, window, etc.

For STAAR Alternate 2, TEA has scheduled a two-week preview window prior to the five-week testing window. Test administrators may also preview an assessment at any time during the testing window as long as testing has not begun for that particular student. TEA highly recommends that district coordinators plan to test and submit data early in the testing window to ensure that all students have an opportunity to test in case of technical, weather, emergency issues and to allow for make-up testing. District coordinators should reserve the last week of the testing window to ensure that all eligible students have been tested and that all student responses are submitted in Response Entry. All assessments must be completed and processed in the system and all students must be accounted for in the system by 11:59 p.m. (CT) on April 16, 2027.

To assist educators, parents, students, and other stakeholders in understanding reporting for the Texas Assessment Program, the Texas Education Agency has updated the terminology used for various events based on input received. In addition, campus rosters will not be included earlier, with administration reports for data verification instead of with final administration reports for accountability. Refer to the following link for more information:

https://txassessmentdocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ODCCM/pages/3024454177/Reporting

District testing personnel may print student test tickets for the first assessment administered in the school year and reuse the test tickets throughout the school year. However, student test tickets must be kept confidential when not used for testing because they contain personally identifiable information. All test tickets not being kept for reuse must be destroyed after each test administration; otherwise, they must be destroyed at the end of the school year.

To assist districts with interpreting the results of online assessments, the following updates have been made to the Centralized Reporting System (CRS):

• Starting with the spring 2026 State of Texas Assessments of Academic readiness (STAAR) administrations, users will be able to download constructed responses at the roster, campus, or district level and receive a report in PDF format.

The Data Entry Interface (DEI) is now known as the Response Entry system (RE).

• The district test site registration form for out-of-school and out-of-district testing will be accessible in TIDE. The form will be available on the Administration and Security Forms card in TIDE, and registration submissions should be made only during the dates specified in the Calendar of Events.
• Augmentative and alternative communication devices will be allowed for use on STAAR for students with documentation in their IEP, but district testing personnel must disable phrase-level prediction.

• The STAAR Alternate 2 Image Card Count document will now be provided in the Paper Administrations section of these Coordinator Resources.
• There will no longer be a barcode on the packets containing STAAR Alternate 2 image cards. Image cards do not need to be tracked but must be returned to Pearson at the end of the administration.

For the 2026-27 school year, STAAR administrations will be offered during the following two-week testing windows:

• November 30 - December 11: STAAR EOC assessments
• April 5-16: STAAR RLA assessments
• April 12-23: STAAR Science and Social Studies Assessments
• April 19-30: STAAR Mathematics assessments
• June 14-25: STAAR EOC assessments

The primary testing week for STAAR administrations is week 1 of each two-week testing window. However, a district coordinator may schedule STAAR mathematics, RLA, science, and social studies assessments on any school day during the assigned testing windows. It is no longer necessary for district coordinators to notify the Texas Education Agency Student Assessment Division if they intend to administer a STAAR assessment on Monday of week 1.

District and campus coordinators should schedule STAAR test sessions for three to four hours, as students are expected to complete assessment in about three hours. Campus coordinators should begin testing within one hour of the start of the school day. TEA does not recommend starting a test session after lunch for students who are late, as they may not have sufficient time to complete the assessment before the end of the school day.

Students must complete the assessment within the same school day unless the student has been approved for an extra day or becomes sick. Any student who needs additional time may continue testing until the end of the regularly scheduled school day. It is not necessary to track the time for lunch or breaks, but students may not spend more than seven hours working on the assessment. For the June administration, an earlier end to the regularly scheduled school day does not require students to stop testing, and they may be allowed to test up to seven hours, if needed.

• District testing coordinators must ensure that each campus administering STAAR has a plan in place to consolidate students who are still testing after a certain point.
• Campus plans may vary based on the total number of students testing, the subject being tested, the availability of staff and space, the class schedule used on testing days, etc.
• TEA recommends consolidation plans be documented and included in campus training.
• Test administrators must inform students that, at some point, students who are still testing will be grouped together and students who have completed testing will join a regular or alternate class schedule.
• Using proctored test sessions allows a campus administrator to determine when enough students have completed testing and consolidation of students who are still testing should occur.

A student who becomes sick and leaves the testing environment for the day may complete the assessment, as needed, on a different day within the scheduled testing window. The Test Delivery System (TDS) will lock student responses eight hours after an online assessment has been paused. Students who continue testing on another day will be able to view all questions but will not be able to respond to questions they have previously responded to or begun a response to, as these questions will NOT be unlocked.

TEA defines accommodations as changes to materials or procedures that enable students to participate meaningfully in learning and testing. TEA accommodation policies may apply to any student taking STAAR depending on his or her needs and whether the student meets the eligibility criteria, as applicable. These policies are divided into the following three main categories:

• accessibility features
• locally-approved designated supports
• designated supports requiring TEA approval

For guidance and policy documents that provide more specific information, refer to the Accommodations section of these Coordinator Resources which are linked below:

https://txassessmentdocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ODCCM/pages/2793210041/Accommodations

Calculators are required for the following STAAR assessments:

• Grade 8 Mathematics
• Grade 8 Science
• Algebra I
• Biology

For the STAAR grade 8 mathematics and Algebra I assessments, each student must have access to a graphing calculation device throughout the entire test.

For the STAAR grade 8 science and Biology assessments, students must have access to a calculation device with a basic four-function capability at a minimum. There should be at least one calculation device for every five students taking these assessments.

Dictionaries must be available to all students taking the following STAAR assessments:

• Grades 3-8 RLA
• English I
• English II

A dictionary tool appropriate for these tests and that fulfills this requirement is available for student use in the online testing platform.

District or Student Supplied Dictionaries

• District testing personnel may provide dictionaries, or students may bring them from home.
• To the extent allowable, students should be provided or allowed to use the same type of dictionary during testing that they routinely use in the classroom.
• A dictionary/thesaurus combination is allowable.
• One dictionary for each student taking these assessments is recommended. There must be a minimum of one dictionary for every five students testing.

To find out more, click on one of the options listed below.

The test administration manuals explain the responsibilities of test administrators. Use the following links to view the manuals for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic readiness (STAAR).

Click on one of the manuals to learn more.

Educator guides are documents designed to familiarize Texas educators with a specific testing program or process.

Educator guides are documents designed to familiarize Texas educators with a specific testing program or process.

Click on one of the Educator Guides to learn more.

All teachers administering a STAAR test must attend the district training and read their Test Administrator manual. Maintaining testing confidentiality involves protecting the contents of all secure test materials, online assessments, student authorizations, and completed answer documents. No person may view, reveal, or discuss the contents of a test before, during or after the administration unless specifically authorized to do so by the Texas Education Agency.

After completing the district training, test administrators are required to initial and sign their oath of test security and confidentiality before receiving any secure materials.

Not following protocol and security measures may result in an irregularity. Any deviations from testing procedures should be reported to your Campus Testing Coordinator immediately.