The Academic Accountability department oversees all training, administration, and reporting for state-mandated and standardized assessments such as STAAR and NWEA MAP. Our team also assists department administrators in organizing the training, proctoring, and reporting of other assessments such as ASLAI and TSIA2. In accordance with TSD’s strategic planning goals, we collaborate with department administrators in the planning and implementation of systematic practices for data collection, data analysis, and goal-setting. We ensure timely upload of local, state, and national assessment data into our data systems and provide updated reports to principals and the school board on our accountability progress.
Classroom Assessments:
Teachers at TSD use a variety of assessment tools to help measure student progress. Formative and summative assessments are given to help monitor student progress with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Contact your child’s teacher to find out more information about the tools and assessments used in the classroom.
Assessments for Accountability:
NWEA MAP: Northwest Education Association’s Measure of Academic Progress
Texas School for the Deaf has been using the NWEA MAP as our Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability assessment since the 2017-2018 school year. Students in Elementary, Middle School and High School take MAP three times a year in the areas of reading and mathematics.
MAP is aligned with the TX State Standards TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) and is a computer adaptive test in which the computer adjusts the difficulty of questions based on student responses. This allows each student to take a unique test designed to identify what they currently know, and what they are ready to learn next.
In accordance with our MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with TEA, student reading and mathematics scores in grades 3 - 11 will be submitted for accountability purposes (note: students in 12th grade who are taking math and english courses will still take MAP in order to provide teachers with data to support instruction).
SELA: Special Education Language Acquisition
House Bill 548 of the 86th Texas Legislature (2019) requires districts to assess and report the language acquisition of students aged birth-8 years old who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) or deafblind (DB). The data collected from this annual testing will provide valuable insight into the language acquisition, education, and intervention for these students and will be used to improve services for students who are DHH or DB in the state. The data does not have any bearing on the students’ special education eligibility, grades, or promotion to the next grade level.
To meet this requirement, the Texas School for the Deaf's Early Learning Center will use the Visual Communication and Sign Language (VCSL) Checklist, while the Elementary program will be using ASL-VT (ASL Vocabulary Test) with students in kindergarten through age 8. The VCSL is a standardized, comprehensive checklist used to assist in tracking young children's sign language development from birth to age 5. The ASL-VT measures expressive and productive signed vocabulary knowledge. Results from the VCSL and ASL-VT will be reported to the state.
State-Mandated Assessments:
STAAR: State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness
Students are tested on the STAAR in grades 3 - High School EOC (End of Course) assessments. Qualifying students with the most significant cognitive disabilities take STAAR Alt. 2. All students taking a STAAR assessment are assessed in specific content areas at different grade levels.
Each student in grades 3 - 8 are assessed in reading and mathematics. In addition to this, students in 5th and 8th are assessed in science, and 8th-grade students are assessed in social studies.
At High School, specific assessments are given which correlate with students enrolled coursework. The five required End of Course (EOC) exams included are: English I and English II (which include Reading and Writing), Algebra I, Biology and US History.
STAAR assessments are designed to assess student mastery of the TEKS. Students receive a scaled score that is linked to a proficiency level. For more information regarding the STAAR, please visit texasassessment.gov.
Please refer to other links to the right of this page, including the 2021-2022 Assessment Information, and Assessment Calendars (also posted on each department's website) for more information regarding additional assessments given throughout the year.
In addition to your child's teacher(s) and department principals, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding assessments.
Texas School for the Deaf is sharing this information about the district (TSD) and the State as part of its obligations under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA).
Please keep in mind that although, we receive federal Title 1 funds, we do not use the state assessment (STAAR) to measure TSD’s accountability. We us Measuring Academic Progress (MAP) scores for that purpose. If you have any questions about TSD’s assessment program, please contact our TSD MTSS Coordinator at [email protected].
If available, Information on these report cards includes:
Part (i): General Description of the Texas State Accountability System
On April 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) waived the accountability, school identification, and related reporting requirements for the 2020-2021 school year. The waiver includes the report card provisions in section 1111(h)(1)(C)(i)(I)-(IV) and (VI) (Accountability system description, other than the list of comprehensive, targeted, and additional targeted support and improvement schools).
Part (ii): Student Achievement by Proficiency Level
This section provides information on student achievement on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) performance for mathematics, reading/ELA, and science by grade level and proficiency level for the 2020-21 school year. These results include all students tested, regardless of whether they were in the accountability subset.
Part (iii)(I): Academic Growth
USDE waived reporting requirements in Section 1111(h)(1)(C)(iii)(I) (Other Academic indicator results for schools that are not high schools).
Part (iii)(II): Graduation Rate
This section provides information on high school graduation rates for the class of 2020.
Part (iv): English Language Proficiency
This section provides information on the number and percentage of English learners achieving English language proficiency based on the 2021 Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) data.
Part (v): School Quality or Student Success (SQSS)
This section provides information on school quality or student success, which is college, career and military readiness (CCMR) for high schools and average performance rate of the three STAAR performance levels of all students, regardless of whether they were in the accountability subset, for elementary and secondary schools without a graduation rate.
Part (vi): Goal Meeting Status
USDE waived reporting requirements in Section 1111(h)(1)(C)(vi) (Progress toward meeting long-terms goals and measurements of interim progress).
Part (vii): STAAR Participation
This section provides the percentage of students assessed and not assessed on STAAR for mathematics, reading/ELA, and science.
Part (viii): Civil Rights Data
Part (viii)(I): The section provides information from the 2017-18 Civil Right Data Collection (CRDC) surveys, submitted by school districts to the Office for Civil Rights, on measures of school quality, climate, and safety, including counts of in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, school related arrests, referrals to law enforcement, chronic absenteeism (including both excused and unexcused absences), incidences of violence, including bullying and harassment.
Part (viii)(II): This section provides information from the 2017-18 Civil Right Data Collection (CRDC) surveys, submitted by school districts to the Office for Civil Rights, on the number of students enrolled in preschool programs and accelerated coursework to earn postsecondary credit while still in high school.
Part (ix): Teacher Quality Data
This section provides information on the professional qualifications of teachers, including information disaggregated by high- and low-poverty schools on the number and percentage of (I) inexperienced teacher, principals, and other school leaders; (II) teachers teaching with emergency or provisional credentials; and (III) teachers who are not teaching in the subject or field for which the teacher is certified or licensed.
Part (x): Per-pupil Expenditure
This section provides information on the per-pupil expenditures of federal, state, and local funds, including actual personnel expenditures and actual non-personnel expenditures, disaggregated by source of funds, for each school district and campus for the preceding fiscal year.
To be updated by June 30th, 2022.
Part (xi): STAAR Alternate 2 Participation
This section provides information on the number and percentage of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who take STAAR Alternate 2, by grade and subject for the 2020-21 school year.
Part (xii): Statewide National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
This section provides results on the state academic assessments in reading and mathematics in grades 4 and 8 of the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared to the national average of such results.
Part (xiii): Cohort Rate of Graduates Enrolled in Postsecondary Education
This section provides information on the cohort rate at which students who graduated from high school in the 2018-19 school year enrolled in the 2019-20 academic year in (I) programs of public postsecondary education in Texas; (II) programs of private postsecondary education in Texas; and (III) programs of postsecondary education outside Texas.
Part (xiv): Additional Information – Chronic Absenteeism
This section provides information on the Chronic Absenteeism per EDFacts definition: percent of unduplicated number of K – 12 students enrolled in a school for at least 10 days and absent for 10% or more days during the 2019-20 school year.
Texas School for the Deaf has been using the NWEA MAP as our Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability assessment since the 2017-2018 school year. Students in Elementary, Middle School and High School take MAP three times a year in the areas of reading and mathematics. 
