Notice of February 2022 Stand-Alone Field Test

The purpose of this communication is to notify Texas public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools of a stand-alone field test required in February 2022.

As previously announced, several requirements of House Bill 3906, 86th Texas Legislature, 2019, are influencing a redesign of the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) that will be implemented in the 2022–2023 school year. This redesign will include several components—transitioning to online assessments, adding writing to reading language arts assessments, capping the number of multiple-choice questions, and adding new item types. Although the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has made a concerted effort to minimize the amount of instructional time used for state testing purposes, particularly stand-alone field testing, a stand-alone field test is necessary to properly integrate these new components into future state assessments.

February 2022 Administration

The stand-alone field test scheduled for February 14–18, 2022 will be administered online only and will include the following grades/subjects and courses:

• Grades 3–8 mathematics
• Grades 3–8 reading
• Grades 5 and 8 science
• Grade 8 social studies
• Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology, and U.S. History
• Spanish grades 3–5 mathematics
• Spanish grades 3–5 reading
• Spanish grade 5 science

All students at the selected campus who are enrolled in an assigned grade and subject or course and scheduled to take the corresponding STAAR assessment in spring 2022 should participate in the February 2022 Stand-Alone Field Test. This includes English learners and students who receive special education services, unless a student requires an accommodation that is not available for the field test. Most online designated supports (e.g., content and language supports, text-to-speech, and speech-to-test) will be available for students who need them. However, American sign language and braille versions will not be available for the stand-alone field test. Updating a student’s required documentation is not necessary for accommodations or for participation in the field test.

Participating local education agencies (LEAs) may administer the stand-alone field test at any time during the online testing window, February 14–18, 2022. TEA will provide test administration instructions online in January 2022. No paper test booklets, answer documents, or other materials will be sent to LEAs. In addition, LEAs will not receive any field-test data from this administration.

LEA Requirements

Texas public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools will be notified of their selection to participate in the February 2022 Stand-Alone Field Test by August 23, 2021, the official start of the 2021–2022 school year. The current design of the sampling plan will attempt to limit the assignments for each selected campus. When identifying the field-test sample, the sampling plan will exclude certain campuses (e.g., campuses selected to administer the National Assessment of Education Progress in 2022).

As required by the Texas Education Code, Section 39.035, administering the February 2022 Stand-Alone Field Test is mandatory for campuses selected. Field-test data from a sample of students who are representative of the state are critical to the state’s ability to build high-quality assessments. TEA recognizes the challenges campuses face regarding time and personnel resources when they are selected to participate in mandatory state testing activities. However, the stand-alone field test is a necessary component of the STAAR redesign.

For more information regarding the STAAR redesign, refer to the STAAR Redesign webpage on the TEA website. If you have any questions about the stand-alone field test, please submit them to TEA using the Student Assessment Help Desk.

Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
(512) 463-9536