Region 4, in collaboration with ESCs 3, 9, 11, 12, and 20 and with permission from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), created a series of TEKS-based, instructional decision-making guides (guides) for educators working with students on alternate academic standards (prerequisite skills that are linked and/or aligned with grade-level standards). The guides are provided for the subjects and grades assessed with the STAAR Alternate 2 (see chart 1 below).
Chart 1
Grade |
Subjects
|
3 |
Math |
Reading |
|
|
|
4 |
Math |
Reading |
Writing |
|
|
5 |
Math |
Reading |
|
Science |
|
6 |
Math |
Reading |
|
|
|
7 |
Math |
Reading |
Writing |
|
|
8 |
Math |
Reading |
|
Science |
Social Studies |
High School
|
Algebra I |
English I
English II
|
|
Biology |
US History |
The guides were developed to cluster prerequisite skills (within an essence statement) and combine several aspects of the State’s Vertical Alignment and Curriculum Framework documents for greater ease in selecting instructional targets. A separate guide was created for each essence statement (even those not assessed in a given year) in math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. Educators will want to examine the current year’s essence statements to be sure they are instructing in all of the essence statements to be assessed within a particular school year.
Separate guides were created for subject-area process skills and standards that are to be incorporated into assessment tasks in all or most of the reporting categories and related prerequisite skills. In one subject the guide is a combined document; in several other subjects there are separate guides for each grade within that subject due to either varied process skills or standards in each grade level. In other subjects, there are no guides because there are no separate process skills or standards within the Curriculum Framework documents (See chart 2 below.).
Chart 2
|
Math |
Reading |
Writing |
Science |
Social Studies |
Process
Skills
Guides
|
Combined |
None |
None |
5th, 8th,
and biology
|
None
|
Standards Guides |
None |
None |
None |
None |
8th and US history |
STAAR Alternate 2: Instructional Decision-Making Guides