STAAR End of Course Performance

Background

District Dashboard Metric

The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) program is designed to measure the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skill (TEKS) curriculum standards.  In spring 2012, the STAAR assessment replaced the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) assessment.  The STAAR assessment includes grade-level assessments for grades 3-8 and end of course (EOC) assessments for high school level subjects.  STAAR EOC exams are administered at the end of the fall, spring, and summer semesters.  Students sit for EOC exams upon completion of the course.  The EOC assessments will be administered in the following subjects:

  • English I, II, III (optional)
  • Algebra I, II (optional)
  • Geometry
  • Biology
  • US History

The STAAR assessment is available in the following forms: paper, online, braille, and Spanish.

There are four versions of the STAAR assessment:

  • STAAR replaces the TAKS assessment and includes assessments for grades 3-8 and End of Course exams for high school level subjects.
  • STAAR Alternate 2 meets the federal requirements mandated under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and is designed for the purpose of assessing students in grades 3-8 and high school who have significant cognitive disabilities and are receiving special education services.
  • STAAR L is a linguistically accommodated English version of the STAAR for grades 3-8 and EOC mathematics, science, and social studies assessments.  It is provided for English Language Learners (ELLs) who meet participation requirements for a substantial degree of linguistic accommodation in these subject areas. After the December 2016 administration, STAAR L will no longer be administered.
  • STAAR Spanish is available in grades 3-5 in reading, writing, mathematics, and science. STAAR Spanish is administered to eligible students for whom a Spanish version of STAAR is the most appropriate measure of their academic progress. STAAR Spanish tests are grade-level assessments and test the same grades and subjects as the general STAAR.

There are four levels of academic performance for the STAAR assessment:

  • Level III: Advanced - student is well prepared and has a high likelihood of success in the next grade or course; student also demonstrates the ability to think critically and apply the assessed knowledge and skills in varied contexts both familiar and unfamiliar and will require little to no academic intervention.
  • Level II: Satisfactory– student is sufficiently prepared and has a reasonable likelihood of success in the next grade or course; student also demonstrates the ability to think critically and apply the assessed knowledge and skills in familiar contexts and may require short term, targeted academic intervention.
  • Level I: Unsatisfactory– student is inadequately prepared and unlikely to succeed in the next grade or course; student does not demonstrate a sufficient understanding of the assessed knowledge and skills and will require ongoing academic intervention.
  • Minimum: The STAAR EOC exam score reports will also indicate whether the student met a Minimum score, which is recommended by the Texas Legislature as a requirement for passing the course, as well as the exam.

The dashboard will display the percentage of students in the district who met the standard for the most recent administration of the STAAR EOC Exam for that subject area. 

Primary Metric

  • STAAR End of Course Performance

User Interface

Dashboard Example

Figure 1 shows the STAAR Performance metric as seen on the district dashboard.

Figure 1 TSDS STAAR EOC Performance Metric

Status Definition on the Dashboards                      

This metric provides information regarding the overall district performances for the STAAR EOC Assessments.  The Status Indicator is determined by the district goal.  The Texas Student Data Systems (TSDS) default threshold is 80% of students meeting the standard of Level II for each subject area.

  • English I, II, III (optional)
  • Algebra I, II (optional)
  • Biology
  • US History

Table 2 Metric Indicators for TSDS STAAR EOC Performance Metric

Metric Indicators

Comparisons

Container Name

Granular Name

Metric Status Indicator (a)

Trend:

District Goal (Delta) (b)

STAAR EOC Performance

English I

Red = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is less than the district goal (80%)

Green = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is greater than or equal to the district goal (80%)

District goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the standard

English II

Red = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is less than the district goal (80%)

Green = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is greater than or equal to the district goal (80%)

 

District goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the standard

English III

Red = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is less than the district goal (80%)

Green = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is greater than or equal to the district goal (80%)

District goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the standard

Algebra I

Red = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is less than the district goal (80%)

Green = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is greater than or equal to the district goal (80%)

District goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the standard

Algebra II

Red = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is less than the district goal (80%)

Green = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is greater than or equal to the district goal (80%)

District goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the standard

Biology

Red = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is less than the district goal (80%)

Green = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is greater than or equal to the district goal (80%)

District goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the standard

US History

Red = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is less than the district goal (80%)

Green = if the percentage of students meeting the standard (Level II) is greater than or equal to the district goal (80%)

District goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the standard

(a)   The Metric Status Indicator column displays the percent of students who attained Level II on the most recent STAAR assessment.

(b)   District Goal (Delta) directly relates to the “Difference from Goal” column on the district dashboard.

Trends

Currently the dashboards do not support trends for this district metric.  The UI supports trends, but the ETL packages have not been developed.

Trend Indicators

Trend Indicators: Objective is to indicate STAAR EOC Performance

Up Green

If the value for the current time frame is more than 10 percentage points higher than the prior time frame, then display a green arrow trending upward.

Unchanged

If the value for the current time frame is less than or equal to 10 percentage points higher or is less than or equal to 10 percentage points lower than the prior time frame, then display two gray arrows pointing outward indicating no direction.

Down Red

If the value for the current time frame is more than 10 percentage points less than the prior time frame, then display a red arrow trending downward.

The trend does not show for the first occurrence of a time frame since data is not available.

Delta Definition

The Delta column displays the absolute value of the difference between the district percentage (Status column) and the district goal percentage (District Goal column).

Table 4 Delta Indicators for STAAR EOC Performance Metric

Delta Indicators: Objective is to indicate STAAR EOC Performance

Metric Name

Sub-Metric Name

District Goal

Delta

STAAR EOC Performance

English I

Set district goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is less than the district goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is equal to or greater than the district goal

English II

Set district goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is less than the district goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is equal to or greater than the district goal

English III

Set district goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is less than the district goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is equal to or greater than the district goal

Algebra I

Set district goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is less than the district goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is equal to or greater than the district goal

Algebra II

Set district goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is less than the district goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is equal to or greater than the district goal

Biology

Set district goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is less than the district goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is equal to or greater than the district goal

US History

Set district goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is less than the district goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the STAAR EOC Performance percentage is equal to or greater than the district goal

Periodicity

Best practice is to load the data for this metric each time there are new assessment files.

Table 3 Recommended Load Characteristics for TSDS STAAR EOC Performance

Recommended Load Characteristics

Calendar

Following Spring, Summer, and Fall administrations

Frequency of data load

When new files are available

Latency

Yearly

Interchange schema

Interchange-StudentAssessment.xsd

Tooltips

The standard tool tips for the metric definition, column headers, and help functions display for this metric.

The following are tooltips specific to the metric:

  • Green metric status: OK
  • Red metric status: Not Met
  • 'More' indicates drill down views for this metric
  • “Getting better from prior period.”
  • “Getting worse from prior period.”
  • “No change from the prior period.”

Business Rules

STAAR EOC Performance metric contains data for the STAAR assessment.  The subject areas will display as granular metrics. 

This metric displays the percent of students who have met the standard for the most recent administration of the STAAR EOC Assessments in the following subject areas:

  • English I, II, III (optional)
  • Algebra I, II (optional)
  • Biology
  • US History

Middle and high school students are included in this metric.  Students may begin taking End of Course Exams as early as 7th grade, if they are enrolled in any of the courses listed above.

  • The status is determined by the calculation of how many students met the standard divided by how many students took the assessment.
  • If a student meets Level II requirements it is inferred that the student met Level I requirements.
  • All students who met the standard for STAAR will be included in the calculation of students who met the standard.

What to display:

  • Always display container and granular metrics.
  • High School students are included in this metric.

Data Assumptions

  • The data will indicate the performance level (Level I, Level II, Level III).
  • The data will provide historical information.
  • The data will provide the number of students who met the standard.
  • The data will provide the number of students who took the administration.

Computed Values

This campus metric is a roll-up for the cohort of current students, across all subject areas tested in the campus.  It is computed from the last set of STAAR EOC scores loaded as follows:

  • For the majority of the year, the previous year’s STAAR EOC scores are reflected
  • Toward the end of the year, the current year’s STAAR EOC scores will be loaded

STAAR Performance

Calculation

Excluded Students

Each subject's percentage

(Number of students in cohort who met the standard for the subject / total number of students in cohort who took the test in the subject) * 100

  • Absent or exempt students
  • Transfer students with no STAAR data (previous or current year) available
  • Students who took an alternate version of the STAAR assessment

Data Anomalies

Anomalies

  • Metrics are sensitive to when and how often the data is loaded
  • Early education and Pre-Kindergarten students and students in grades 1 and 2 are not included in the data.
  • Students receiving instruction in a grade higher than the grade in which they are enrolled will be assessed at the higher level if the content covers the entire curriculum for that subject.
  • Late enrollees may have taken the STAAR at their previous school.
  • Data will be loaded from multiple administration dates.
  • STAAR metric will display the most recent exam data.
  • District rollups of STAAR Performance will display the performance of students who took STAAR that are still enrolled in that district.

Footnotes

  • Students are excluded as a result of non-participation
  • Students are excluded as a result of alternate testing (STAAR-Alt or STAAR-M)

Date of Refresh

Best practice is for the date of the last data refresh to appear next to the metric in the following format:

         (Through April 2010)

Implementation Considerations

STAAR Apparent Non-Participation

The STAAR EOC assessments are administered at the end of each semester. Students’ non-participation can only be detected to the extent that the district has received and loaded timely test result data from STAAR. Information from one district’s coordinator indicated the STAAR deliveries of results were “random” throughout the year.

STAAR Participation Expectation

Students will take the STAAR EOC assessments at the conclusion of the required course.  Proper application of the metric requires the district or campus establish clear expectations for when students should take the STAAR assessments, and if a student has not taken the assessments, at what point an intervention is in order.

Incomplete Transcripts and Missing STAAR Scores

Transfer students may have incomplete transcripts that do not show prior STAAR participation. Timely acquisition of a transfer student’s transcript is imperative to apply this and other metrics.

Drill Downs

Drill Down View

This metric includes the option to drill down for information that is associated with this metric. Table 5 lists the drill down views that are defined for this metric.

Table 4 Metric Drill Down Views for STAAR EOC Performance Metrics

Campus List

List of campuses, their current metric values, goals, and difference from goals.

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