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October 5, 2015      3:59 PM

Test scores still show huge gaps in performance, improvement

Trends with the STAAR have been different from its predecessors and figuring out why is not always apparent

Texas students failed 1.8 million standardized tests last year, and results from the summer retests were so dismal as to alarm long-time observers.

The state has now gone through five generations of standardized tests: TABS, TEAMS, TAAS, TAKS and now STAAR. General trends are almost always the same: Scores start low; then typically rise. Elementary schools typically score better than secondary schools. And, eventually, students top out of the test and a new series is created.

STAAR has been somewhat different, and the answer as to why is not always apparent. In a session at the TASA/TASB Conference in Austin, Maria Whitsett of Moak Casey & Associates outlined differences around STAAR, not the least of which was an estimate that 1.8 million tests were failed last year.

By Kimberly Reeves