STAAR test results available to parents soon
By Donnie A. Lucas
Preliminary results of the spring STAAR testing administered to local students are not official yet, but school officials said parents should be able to see results within a week or two through the Texas Education Agency’s parent portal.
While administrators will use the test results in an attempt to determine how students have progressed over the last year, local comparative results may take longer than usual because TEA hasn’t announced if or when they will release statewide results.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, students statewide did not return to the classroom after spring break in March of 2020. The school relied on remote learning and work packets to complete the school year.
The local school district allowed remote learning for the first two six-weeks grading periods of the 2020-2021 school year, with all students returning to in-person instruction in November unless they were personally impacted by the COVID-19 virus.
Not all schools returned to the classroom setting as quickly as Albany ISD, prompting TEA to consider the spring 2021 testing only has a basis for comparison for the upcoming school year.
“We will be looking at our scores as benchmarks,” superintendent Jonathan Scott said. “It will give us a place to start in the fall, and we are developing a number of programs to assist students who suffered learning loss during the last year.”
Scott said that parents who have a student who needs assistance to catch up should be patient with the process.
“This learning loss won’t be recovered in a single year for some students,” he said. “We have been told by TEA that it could take three to four years for some students to catch up to where they need to be.”
Scott stressed that the district is heavily invested in developing solutions to find out where each student stands and how to supply support for the learning that may have been lost.
The district has been allotted just over $750,000 through TEA as part of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Grant III, which the federal government approved in the American Rescue Plan Act that passed in March 2021.
Administrators are working to put together a comprehensive plan that involves both additional personnel and programs to meet the needs of students who suffered a gap in learning during the pandemic.
An interventionist has been hired or reassigned at both campuses for the coming school year to facilitate benchmark testing and coordinate individualized instruction for students who are behind due to the time and instruction missed during the pandemic.
The grant requires that at least 20 percent of the funding be spent to remediate for learning loss due to the pandemic.
Scott plans to present the school board with a spending plan for the grant money for their input and possible approval at the Monday, June 21 meeting.
The district will be using a testing tool called Amplify to test students in K-2 to determine if intervention is required.
Another testing program entitled Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) will provide norm testing for all students K-12. The program will measure student learning three times during the school year, providing results for individual students compared to others at their grade level, as well as the national norm.
“That will give parents information on how their student is performing compared to others in their local group, as well as to the national average,” Scott said.
Nancy Smith Elementary principal John Gallagher said that local grade school students performed as expected in some areas and not as well in others.
“We are proud of the students’ performance in both math and reading, overall,” Gallagher said. “What wasn’t expected was the improvement shown in the Approaches, Meets and Masters categories on the STAAR. There was growth there over the 2019 results for the most part, which is impressive during this time.”
Overall, Scott said that results for older students did not seem to be impacted as much as the younger grade levels.
“More older students were accustomed to the online learning that was used during the pandemic,” Scott said. “Plus, they already processed the foundational learning needed, which younger students had not yet obtained.”
At the secondary level, principal Glen Hill reported that the “Meets” and “Masters” designations actually improved in some areas at the high school level.
He added that a math camp is currently underway for the seventh graders who need extra support based on preliminary STAAR testing scores.
Secondary students will also be using Study Island to help fill the gaps where they exist.
Intervention at the secondary level during the school year will mostly be provided during WIN time, a 25-minute multi-purpose period for students to seek additional help, as well as have meetings or work on UIL or other school-related activities.
“With the information we are gathering this summer, we hope to hit the ground running to help support our students who may have fallen behind during COVID-19,” Hill said.
Scott noted that the TEA will forego the A-F school accountability ratings for the last two school years, but the STAAR scores for the upcoming 2021-2022 school year will count for ratings to be released in the summer of 2022.
