TL;DR
Turn the school run and nap time into listening time
- Thousands of audiobooks, podcasts and originals
- Listen on your phone, tablet or Echo — also offline
- Cancel anytime
Texas districts and charter networks submitted 64,489 requests this spring to rescore open-ended responses on STAAR reading exams, up from 21,620 last year. The Texas Education Agency said human reviewers raised more than 13,300 scores; the agency reported that fewer than 0.5% of all open-ended reading responses changed.
Texas school districts and charter networks requested 64,489 rescoring reviews of open-ended responses on this spring’s STAAR reading exams, nearly triple the 21,620 requests last year, according to Texas Education Agency data reported by The 74. Human reviewers raised more than 13,300 reading scores, as debate continued over the state’s use of computer scoring for written answers.
The number of requests has climbed sharply since Texas began using automated scoring for open-ended STAAR responses. In spring 2024, the state received 2,758 requests to regrade open-ended responses on reading exams; the total rose to 21,620 the following year and then to 64,489 this spring. The state made more than 13,300 score corrections, twice as many as the prior year, according to the report.
Of the scores later changed, 42% had initially been assigned by human scorers and 58% by computers. Humans conducted all rescoring reviews. More than 250 districts and public charter networks, including Cypress-Fairbanks, Dallas, Katy and Northside, filed requests. Agency data cited by The 74 showed that nearly 90% of those systems had at least one submitted reading exam receive a higher score.
More than 3.2 million students took the reading STAAR this spring, including students in grades three through eight and those taking the English I and English II end-of-course exams. The report said fewer than 0.5% of all open-ended reading responses were changed after review. That figure describes the share of responses changed, not the percentage of students whose scores changed.
Rescores Can Affect Students and Schools
STAAR results matter beyond a student’s immediate test record. Students are placed in one of four performance levels — did not meet, approaches, meets or masters — and districts may use results to make decisions about support and remediation. A small score change can move a student across a performance threshold. Allison Matney, director of the Texas Center for School Accountability, told The 74 that such a change could affect whether a student needs remediation or can graduate.
Test performance also feeds into campus and district A–F accountability ratings. Texas law allows the education commissioner to take action when a campus underperforms over multiple years, including appointing a conservator or replacing a locally elected school board. The rising review volume matters, then, both to families concerned about individual results and to school leaders whose ratings and decisions rely on those scores.
The increase also adds work for districts. University of Texas at Austin professor Rachel White told The 74 that administrators spending time and money reviewing results and filing requests points to a trust problem in scoring. That is her interpretation of the trend; the request total alone does not establish why every district sought a review or whether the original score was wrong.
scoring review software for standardized tests
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Texas Uses a Hybrid Scoring System
The Texas Education Agency began using automated scoring in December 2023, after the state redesigned STAAR to include fewer multiple-choice questions and more open-ended, or constructed-response, items. The agency developed its scoring engine using thousands of responses previously graded by people, teaching the system to assign scores according to patterns in those human-scored examples.
The system is not generative AI, agency officials have said. According to TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky, it does not learn from one response to the next. The agency’s process also includes human review of a quarter of exam scores, according to the report, while all requested rescores are handled by people. The initial adoption drew criticism after a rise in zero scores on writing prompts; state officials cited other possible factors in 2023, including students retaking the test.
TEA also automatically rescores extended constructed responses when a student is one point short of the next performance level, at no cost. Some districts said that automatic process freed money to request reviews for students two points away. Dallas ISD said it requested rescoring because it believed students benefit when human scorers review their answers, according to a district statement quoted by The 74.
“That traction of superintendents talking to each other — (and) media continuing to talk about it — made more districts aware that not only can they do this process, but actually they should, and they need to.”
— Allison Matney, director of the Texas Center for School Accountability
What the Request Counts Cannot Show
The available figures do not establish why each district requested a review, whether requests disproportionately involved computer-scored responses, or how often a human rescore confirmed the original mark. Because 42% of corrected scores had originally been assigned by people, the corrections were not limited to computer-scored work. The report does not provide a breakdown of all requests by original scorer or explain the full circumstances behind each changed score.
The statewide change rate also needs careful interpretation: the report says fewer than 0.5% of open-ended reading responses were changed, but does not give a separate rate for requested responses, individual students or districts. The rise in requests is consistent with greater awareness, as Matney suggested, and with educators’ concerns, as White argued; the data presented do not establish which explanation accounts for how much of the increase.
Districts Await Final Score Use
Districts can continue to use the state’s rescoring process for eligible responses, while TEA’s automatic review remains available for extended responses one point below the next performance level. The agency says its hybrid model allows it to return results faster than manually scoring every response, which Kobersky said would require four to five times as many human scorers and cost an additional $15 million to $20 million a year.
The next useful information would be a fuller TEA breakdown of requests and corrections by year, original scoring method, response type and district, along with details on how changed scores affected performance levels. Until those details are available, the current figures show a substantial rise in appeals and thousands of corrections, but do not by themselves determine whether the cause was broader awareness, dissatisfaction with scoring, or a combination of factors.
Key Questions
How many STAAR reading rescoring requests were filed this spring?
Texas received 64,489 requests to rescore open-ended reading responses this spring, according to TEA data reported by The 74.
How many scores changed after review?
Human reviewers raised more than 13,300 reading scores. The report said fewer than 0.5% of all open-ended reading responses changed after review.
Were all the originally disputed responses graded by computers?
No. Of the scores that were changed, 58% had initially been assigned by computers and 42% by human scorers. People conducted all the rescoring reviews.
Why did requests increase?
Matney said increased awareness among districts may have contributed. White said the increase may reflect educators’ disagreement with assigned scores. The figures do not establish the reason for each request.
Can a rescoring change affect a student’s school outcome?
It can affect a student’s performance level if the revised score crosses a threshold, which may influence decisions such as remediation. STAAR results also contribute to school accountability ratings.
Source: rss
Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples' Day Picks
long weekend sales
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
