Texas Through-year Assessment Pilot

The Texas Through-year Assessment Pilot (TTAP) will explore 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 has been designed in collaboration with Texas educators, administrators, students, and families. The progress monitoring system will have three, short testing opportunities – one in the fall, winter, and spring. To ensure that all districts can retain their local curriculum, each TTAP progress monitoring opportunity will cover the full scope of the curriculum. Each opportunity will use 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 will be 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.

Key Dates and Details for 2022–23 

Key Dates Description

October 3 – 31, 2022

Fall Orientation Modules (Asynchronous, Set of 2)

November 14 –18, 2022  

Opportunity 1 Administration Window

November 21, 2022

Opportunity 1 Score Reports Available

November 28 – December 2, 2022

Fall Training 

January 30 – February 3, 2023

Opportunity 2 Administration Window

February 6, 2023

Opportunity 2 Score Reports Available

February 6 – 10, 2023

Winter Training

March 27 – 31, 2023

Spring Training

April 3 – 7, 2023

Opportunity 3 Administration Window

April 10, 2023

Opportunity 3 Math Score Reports Available

April 17, 2023

Opportunity 3 Science and Social Studies Score Reports Available

Note: All trainings are required for teachers and optional for all other staff (i.e., testing coordinators, administration, education support staff). The only exception is the TTAP Orientation Module, which all district testing coordinators and campus testing coordinators are required to complete by the end of October. The fall, winter, and spring training periods will have synchronous and asynchronous training options.

Benefits of the Texas Through-year Assessment Pilot

TEA is piloting the following grade levels and subjects during school year 2022-2023. Additional grade levels and subjects will be added to the pilot in following years. 

  • Grade 5 science
  • Grade 6 math
  • Grade 7 math
  • Grade 8 social studies

Approximately 10% of Texas public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools have volunteered to participate in TTAP. Participation in the pilot is optional and does not eliminate the obligation to administer STAAR. Districts who participate in the through-year pilot during school year 2022-23 will experience the following benefits:

benefits: TEKS-aligned Progress Monitoring Data, Assessment Literacy Training, Access to New Question Types, and Increased Familiarity with the STAAR Platform

 

  • Receive TEKS-aligned progress monitoring data, including information about in-year growth. Student results on the fall and winter opportunities will be available at the conclusion of each opportunity window and will provide a snapshot of where students stand academically at that point of the year.
  • Participate in teacher assessment literacy training. Training on how to interpret through-year progress monitoring reports and on the roles of interim, formative, summative tests within a balanced assessment system will be provided to educators so that they can use data to best support students.
  • Interact with operational new question types. TTAP participants will be able to interact with the new question types that will be used on the redesigned STAAR in Spring 2023. The new, non-multiple-choice question types are more closely aligned to the types of questions educators are using in the classroom every day.
  • Increase familiarity with STAAR online testing platform. All TTAP progress monitoring opportunities will be administered on the same online platform as STAAR, giving students additional opportunities to interact with the system’s functionalities.

Texas Through-year Assessment Pilot Resources

Pilot Year 2 Application

The year 2 application is now closed. TEA is in the process of confirming participants.

Information about the second year of the pilot was shared through live informational webinars in early April. If you were unable to attend, see below for links to the TTAP Year 2 Informational Webinar recording and slides:

TTAP Year 2 Informational Webinar Recording

TTAP Year 2 Informational Webinar Slides

TTAP Year 2 FAQs

Contact Information

For additional information, contact TEA using the Student Assessment Help Desk or call 512-463-9536.