For the third year, Texas has administered the STAAR (State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness) in reading for Grades 3-8 and in writing for grades 4 and 7 during the spring semester. And for the third year in a row, the state results have remained relatively stable.

Reading

Writing

The State of Texas Commissioner of Education has pointed out that with the increased rigor of this assessment over the previous assessment, schools and school districts need to move away from “test preparation, fact memorization, and practice tests” and move toward more “emphasis on critical thinking skills” in order to improve performance on these assessments.

The reading assessment consists of multiple choice questions about selections from a variety of genres, including poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and drama.

The 4^th and 7^th grade writing assessments include multiple choice questions about revising and editing and two compositions (one personal narrative and one expository for 4^th grade and one personal narrative with reflection and one expository for 7^th grade). Both the 4^th and 7^th grade writing assessments take place over a two day period, with a four-hour testing time for each day.