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The purpose of this communication is to inform superintendents and administrators at the local educational agency (LEA) and campus levels about the optional assessment resources available to LEAs during the 2022–23 school year. These include the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) Interim Assessments, the Texas Formative Assessment Resource (TFAR), and the beginning-of-year (BOY) assessments. In addition to providing data to support instruction, each of these assessments provide students with opportunities to become familiar with the online platform used to administer STAAR.

STAAR Interim Assessments

STAAR Interim Assessments, an optional online tool to help educators monitor progress and predict student performance on STAAR, will be available during the 2022–23 school year for all STAAR tested grades/subjects and courses. Interim assessments are full-scope tests designed to be administered one to two times during the school year, depending on the content area. Interim assessments will include new item types that will appear on STAAR in Spring 2023, except for constructed response questions because they are not machine-scorable. Windows for administering interim assessments can be found in the table below.

KEY DATES FOR INTERIM ASSESSMENTS

Texas Formative Assessment Resource (TFAR)

TFAR is a free, optional platform used by educators to create, administer, analyze, and share formative assessments. Teachers will be able to analyze the results of these formative assessments to help inform instructional choices such as making immediate lesson plan adjustments or providing specific interventions for students at the level of individual standards.

TFAR is meant to supplement and support existing LEA resources and formative assessment practices. Assessments created in TFAR should be combined with a broader set of classroom formative practices that are part of a coherent instructional framework.

Additionally, formative assessments from select, high quality instructional materials (HQIM) with an open education license will be available to administer through the same online test administration system as assessments created using TFAR. Assessments from math and RLA curricula, grades K-5, will be prioritized, and other, select curricula’s assessments will be released on a rolling basis. More information about which HQIM products’ tests will be available in the online system and the release dates of these tests will be available in the fall.

Beginning-of-Year Assessments

As a result of LEA feedback, optional BOY assessments will be available during the 2022–23 school year. BOY assessments are designed to be administered at the start of the school year to provide educators with data to develop appropriate instructional plans and address gaps in student learning. This coming year’s BOY assessments will be the Spring 2022 released STAAR tests. Score calculations for English I and English II BOY assessments will not include constructed responses.

KEY DATES FOR BOY ASSESSMENTS

For questions regarding any of these optional assessment resources, please contact TEA using theÌý.

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