SBISD TAKS Information

Spring Branch ISD News Update

New student assessment program begins this year

Beginning this fall, the well-known TAAS exam will be replaced for all but a few Texas high school students with a new test, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS exam, in grades 3 through 11.

TAKS will become the foundation for the statewide accountability system and will be strongly aligned with the state’s curriculum standards, known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), on which the new test is based.

The new test will also become a state promotion standard in reading for third-grade students beginning this year. Third-grade students will be given three opportunities to pass. Reading test dates for third-graders are March 4, April 30 and July 8.

This promotion requirement is a component of the Texas Student Success Initiative, which is part of President George W. Bush’s desire as former Texas governor to have every student reading at grade level by the third grade. This new standard includes state support for remedial reading programs, if needed.

During October, a school letter and brochure providing more information on the third-grade reading requirement will be sent to the parents of SBISD third-graders. English Letter Spanish Letter

In upcoming years, TAKS results will be tied to promotion in grades 5 and 8.

While the Texas State Board of Education has not yet set passing standards, it’s generally understood that TAKS questions will have a greater emphasis on students' ability to apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems.

TAKS will also present students with significant changes in test design. Reading and Language Arts tests in higher grades, for example, will include lengthier reading selections with comprehension questions that will require students to draw from two or three reading sources.

Some other noticeable changes with TAKS include:

In addition to reading and math, fifth-graders will also be tested in science
Middle school writing moves from eighth grade to seventh grade
Eighth-graders will continue to be tested in reading, math and social studies, but no longer in science
Ninth-graders will now be tested in reading and math
10th and 11th graders will now be tested in English language arts, math, social studies and science. (This year, 11th grade students will take the new TAKS tests; however, successful completion of the Exit-Level TAAS will remain their graduation requirement.)

Beginning this fall, the old TAAS exam will only be administered to students in 10th grade, and those in 11th and 12th grade who have not yet passed one or more sections of the TAAS test in order to meet graduation requirements. Students who were in eighth grade or below on Jan. 1, 2001, will graduate under the TAKS exit exam.

TAKS tests were developed with input from educators throughout the state and field-tested in Texas schools earlier this year.

To provide a better understanding of TAKS and its connection to the TEKS, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has developed grade and subject-based information booklets. They are available for downloading from the TEA’s website:www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/taks/booklets/index/html