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Texas Through-year Assessment Pilot

The Texas Through-year Assessment Pilot (TTAP) explores whether Texas’s current summative assessment can be replaced with a cohesive progress-monitoring system.

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Overview of the Texas Through-year Assessment Pilot

House Bill 3906, 86th Texas Legislature, 2019, required the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to develop and pilot an innovative, through-year assessment model as a possible replacement of the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) summative tests. A through-year assessment model refers to a progress monitoring system that provides students multiple opportunities throughout the school year to demonstrate their mastery of standards and to contribute to their summative performance level reported at the end of the year.

TTAP was designed in collaboration with Texas educators, administrators, students, and families while ongoing feedback from pilot participants (i.e., students, teachers, administrators) helps measure the impacts of this system and inform how data can best be used to support instruction.

The progress monitoring system has three, short testing opportunities – one in the fall, winter, and spring. To ensure that all districts can retain their local curriculum and measure within-year student growth, each TTAP progress monitoring opportunity covers the full scope of the curriculum. Each opportunity uses a multi-stage adaptive design, allowing for shorter tests with greater accuracy to minimize the disruption to instructional time.

TTAP progress monitoring opportunities in October, January, and April. Formative assessments aligned to local curriculum monthly. Note: TTAP progress monitoring opportunities are intended to replace other benchmark assessments to minimize the disruption to instruction.

 

TTAP is a multi-year, fully online pilot that launched in school year 2022–2023. The model is being piloted over several years to assess its benefits and to ensure that the design maintains the rigorous level of validity and reliability that STAAR currently meets, in hopes of creating a scoring methodology that is comparable and can be used for state accountability. Participation in the pilot is optional and does not eliminate the obligation to administer STAAR.

TTAP Year 3 (SY24–25)

TTAP Year 3 will continue to offer content and language supports and individual predictions to the STAAR, as well as additional supplemental training resources for TTAP participants. Based on feedback collected from pilot participants, Year 3 will tentatively include the following updates:

  • improved file ingestion for data platforms (i.e., Euphoria, DMAC)
  • longitudinal data views for math titles in grades 6–8
  • adjusted training requirements for teachers and administrators
  • addition of range performance level descriptors (PLDs)

Over 100 Texas public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools have volunteered to participate in TTAP for the 2024–25 school year. A list of participating districts will be published in mid-August. More information on Year 3 of the pilot can be accessed through the links below.

Key Dates and Details for 2024–2025

Key Dates Description
November 11–15, 2024 Opportunity 1 Administration Window
January 27–31, 2025 Opportunity 2 Administration Window
March 24–28, 2025 Opportunity 3 Administration Window

Benefits of TTAP

Districts that participate in the through-year pilot experience the following benefits:

  • Multiple Testing Opportunities - Students have three opportunities to demonstrate their mastery of standards. These assessments enable teachers to measure progress and identify which students are on-track towards meeting end-of-year proficiency.  TTAP assessments serve as a viable replacement to locally adopted interim assessments and are 100% TEKS aligned. All TTAP progress monitoring opportunities are administered on the same online platform as STAAR, giving students additional chances to interact with the system's functionalities. TTAP participants are able to interact with different item types that are used on the redesigned STAAR test.
  • Timely Student Reports - After each testing opportunity, teachers receive individualized student reports, that include data such as performance levels, predictions to the STAAR, and in-year growth. These reports can be used to share progress with students and parents and serve as an additional data point for identifying intervention needs.
  • Report Interpretation Resources - TTAP Assessments contain items that are aligned to standards at different degrees of rigor. Resources are available to participants in Year 3 to illustrate the differences in item difficulty and communicate the content-level rigor that students demonstrate at different levels of proficiency.
  • District Support - Due to the small-scale nature of the pilot, participants have access to timely and district-specific guidance through ongoing office hours, Q&A sessions, and the TTAP inbox. TEA is available, as needed throughout the school year, to support with score reports, administration, and any additional pilot-related questions.
  • Flexible Training Options - Teachers and administrators receive training on accessing and interpreting student results to help guide the formation of instructional groups and support classroom instructional decisions. TEA offers synchronous and asynchronous training options, along with additional training supplements for optional access.
  • Feedback Loops - TTAP teachers, students, and administrators have the opportunity to shape the future of Texas assessments by providing feedback throughout the school year. Participants are asked to share their insights and experiences through student and staff surveys, focus groups, and district site visits which inform updates to the Texas Assessment Program. Participating districts interested in hosting a TTAP site visit should contact TEA at TTAP@tea.texas.gov.

Resources

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Contact Information

For additional information, contact TEA at TTAP@tea.texas.gov.

(512) 463-1569