State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Testing Changes – The STAAR redesign is a result of House Bill (HB) 3906 passed by the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019. The redesign will be implemented in the state summative assessments administered in the 2022–2023 school year. The STAAR redesign, is being done to more closely align the text with the classroom experience, includes several components:

• Online Testing and Accommodations: All STAAR tests will be taken online to provide robust accommodations for students with specific learning needs.
   
• New Question Types: New Question Types will be added, including non-multiple-choice questions that are more consistent with the types of questions teachers ask in class.
  
  The maximum number of multiple-choice questions on a test is 75%. This means the other 25% of the test will be made up of open-ended questions, graphs, number lines, free response  questions and more. This is different than what students are used to.
   
• Cross-curricular Passages: Writing will be added to the reading test as early as third grade, where students were previously assessed only on multiple choice questions. There will be an increase in the number of cross-curricular informational passages that reference content aligned to the TEKS for other subject areas (e.g., social studies, science, mathematics, fine arts, etc.). While the questions will include topics from other subject areas, the questions will only assess a student's reading and language arts performance, students will not be scored on their understanding of the other subject areas.
   
• Evidence-based Writing: Beginning with the 2022–2023 school year, RLA assessments will assess both reading and writing (grades 3–8 English, grades 3–5 Spanish, and English I and II End-of-Course) and will include new question types and an extended constructed response, or essay, at every grade level.
  
  A lot of the questions now will also have multiple answers. Instead of just picking A, B, C or D, students could be asked to choose the two or three best answers. There could also be multiple parts to a question. For example, what you answer in part A of a question determines what you  answer in part B.

College, Career & Military Readiness (CCMR) Evaluation Changes – TEA has eliminated some of the popular industry-based certifications and added course requirements to be considered career ready. This change will have a significant impact on our high school students, who are considered career ready because of the industry-based certifications they earn but will not be considered career ready by the TEA. 

The most significant change is the increase in the percentage of CCMR-ready graduates that a campus needs to earn A rating, which has increased from 60% to 88%, applied retroactively to 2022 Graduates (who are included in 2023 accountability ratings). Additionally, when evaluated across each student group, CCMR targets are increasing by a range of 2% to 37%.

Closing the Gaps Changes - This is the domain that measures the performance of various different student groups. In the past, you needed at least 25 students in a group for that group's performance to count towards your accountability rating. The number of students has now decreased to 10. There will also be changes to which student groups are evaluated for each campus, the performance targets that each student group needs to meet for each area, and how the overall Closing the Gaps domain is scored for the assignment of a letter grade rating.

District Rating Changes - The way district ratings have been calculated will change. Previously, district ratings were calculated similarly to high school campus ratings, with 40% of the district rating from STAAR results, 40% from CCMRs, and 20% from Graduation Rates. Now, the results from each campus will count proportionately toward the district’s ratings based on enrollment of 3^rd-12^th grade students at each campus. This proportional weighting will significantly impact all districts across the state, with decreases in ratings anticipated.