A quick take on just-released STAAR results
New STAAR data is out, allowing us to see how Texas students fared on the state’s new achievement test. Here’s my quick take:
*Passing rates on most end-of-course exams for ninth-graders, who were the first to take these EOC tests, were around 80 percent or more. Algebra I. English I Reading. Biology. World Geography. The passing rates for all ninth-graders, including those who took the test more than once, was at least 80 percent. For biology, it was 91 percent. These numbers are good, and that last one for biology is really good.
But the passing rate for English I writing in the ninth grade was disturbingly low. Only 72 percent passed it then, including after multiple tries. That’s not good, especially when you consider that only 54 percent of ninth-graders passed the writing end-of-course exam on the first try.
*Eighth graders are tanking in social studies, which is something I don’t get. Only 59 percent of eighth