STAAR results for RCISD show continued recovery from pandemic

Travis Hairgrove, Rockwall County Herald-Banner, Greenville, Texas
·4 min read

Jul. 17—Royse City ISD is seeing growth in several areas compared with last year and, in some cases, more students are meeting grade level than in 2019—the last pre-COVID year, according to STAAR test data released by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

On July 1, TEA posted STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) results for third through eighth grades.

Before the pandemic, fifth and eighth grade were the "high stakes" years for the STAAR because students' performance on the test played a major role in the state's criteria for promotion to the next grade. However, in July 2020 TEA officials and Gov. Greg Abbott announced the end of that requirement for promotion.

Due to the past significance of the fifth- and eighth-grade tests, TEA's website has more data posted on those grade levels than for the third, fourth, sixth and seventh grades.

At its core, the STAAR test is really a reading comprehension test. Regardless of whether a student is taking the reading, math, science, social studies or writing portion, they have to understand the question. For this reason, Royse City ISD's scores in reading were encouraging.

For example, in the case of fifth-grade reading, only 5% of the students who took the STAAR in Spring 2019 met grade level. After efforts by teachers to regain ground after disruptions from the pandemic, 2021's fifth-graders met grade level in reading at a rate of 44%. Then, this past May, the percentage of fifth-graders who met grade level on the STAAR test continued to grow to 59%.

Likewise, Royse City ISD's eighth-graders saw comparable gains in reading, as only 11% of those tested in May 2019 met grade level. In 2021, eighth-graders met grade level at a rate of 43%. Then, the improvement continued into this past year with 54% of RCISD's eighth-graders meeting grade level on the STAAR test.

When it came to math scores for Royse City's fifth- and eighth-graders, however, the 2022 results were somewhat lower than they were in 2021, but still significantly higher than they were in 2019.

Back in May 2019, only 3% of RCISD's fifth-graders met grade level on the math portion. Then, after interventions were made to catch up after COVID-related disruptions, 2021's fifth-graders met grade level in math at a much higher rate, 59%. In 2022, that rate fell to 50%.

Similarly, only 2% of RCISD's eighth-graders who took the STAAR math exam in Spring 2019 met grade level. In 2021, the rate increased to 23%, and in May 2022 it fell down a bit to 21%.

While the third-eighth grade scores were released early this month, TEA released the results of its high school STAAR EOC (End of Course) exams in mid June. The EOC's are in five core subject areas: Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology and U.S. History.

Of those high school results, Algebra I, U.S. History and Biology showed the clearest signs of recovery from ground lost due to the pandemic.

Out of RCISD's students who took the EOC for Algebra I in Spring 2022, 67% met grade level (answered at least 62% of the questions correctly). This is a 23% improvement compared to Spring 2021. Even better, the score is 8% higher than it was in Spring 2019, the last pre-COVID year.

Meanwhile, for students who took the U.S. History EOC in Spring 2022, 66% of them met grade level. This is a small but welcome 2% increase compared to Spring 2021, but still a 12% drop compared to Spring 2019.

Similarly, for Biology, 67% of the students who took the EOC for the course met grade level (correctly answered at least 48% of the questions). This is a 15% improvement compared to Spring 2021, but still 4% away from where it was in Spring 2019.

While Royse City ISD saw growth in the number of students meeting grade level in Algebra 1, U.S. History and Biology, the results for English I and II showed a slight downward trend.

For English I, 51% of RCISD's high school students who took the exam in Spring 2022 met grade level (correctly answered more than 50% of the questions). This is 4% lower than the percentage in Spring 2021 and 7% lower than what it was in Spring 2019.

Meanwhile, for English II, the rate of students meeting grade level rose between 2019 and 2021, but fell again in 2022. For that course, 57% of RCISD's high school students who took the exam in Spring 2022 met grade level (correctly answered at least 45% of the questions). This percentage of passing was 6% the lower than it was in Spring 2021, but the same as it was in Spring 2019.