CREST Conference: TEA Updates

Bailey and I had a wonderful time at the Coalition of Reading and English Supervisors of Texas Conference in Austin on Sunday and Monday. We attended some great sessions and enjoyed visiting with other supervisors about reading and writing.

BRAD VASIL -- We heard from Brad Vasil who took Victoria Young's place over the ELAR/Social Studies state assessments at TEA. He said many things have been put in place to correct all the recent online testing issues.

Brad's Beliefs on Assessment: 1. Assessment should reflect quality instruction, not the other way around. 2. Transparency--no "black boxes" in assessment. We should know what we're doing and why. Stakes are too high to just say, "Trust us!" 3. Customer Service Business--Communication--make sure we're keeping people up-to-date about what's going on. We're here to serve students!

Brad went into great detail about how writing (constructed response and short answer) is scored and how scorers are qualified. It's a complicated process. Let me know if you want more information, and I'll share the details from my notes.

Brad hopes to have some answers soon on HB 1164 (requires TEA to plan a study to develop a writing assessment methodology as an alternative to the Grades 4 and 7 writing tests).

NEW TEKS UPDATE: We heard from several people working on the TEKS committees. We then split in groups to review/discuss various TEKS strands and give feedback. The new TEKS look really go so far. They are divided into 8 strands and each strand includes reading, writing, listening, and speaking using multi-genre texts. Strands: 1. Foundational Language Skills 2. Comprehension 3. Response 4. Collaboration 5. Multi-Genre 6. Author's Purpose and Craft 7. Composition and Presentation 8. Inquiry and Research.