Shellie Ross of Wesley Rankin Community Center (right, holding “Reach for the STAARS” sign) takes part in a pep rally to welcome students at Edison Middle Learning Center on STAAR testing day. Erika ...

Erika De La Rosa was excited when she heard about the sweeping changes to the STAAR exam. "When they initially announced it, as an English teacher, it sounded like a fantastic idea because writing ...

FILE – In this Feb. 12, 2015, file photo, sixth grade students use a practice session to prepare for the the Common Core State Standards Test at Morgan Elementary School South in Stockport, Ohio.

The free-form responses in the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness this year will be graded by new “automated scoring engines” designed to “read” what students write. Many people helped ...

Under state law, Texas students in fifth and eighth grade must pass the STAAR reading and math tests to be promoted to the next grade. Students who did not pass these exams had the opportunity to ...

Many people helped my daughter grow as a writer: My husband and I nurtured her reading and took her on adventures. A decade’s worth of teachers coached her on writing and challenged her thinking.