November 2022 Committee on School Finance/Permanent School Fund Item 1
Approval of Costs to Administer the 2022–2023 State-Developed Assessments to Private School Students
November 18, 2022
COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL FINANCE/PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND: ACTION
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: CONSENT
SUMMARY: Texas Education Code, §39.033, allows a private school to voluntarily assess its students with the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) and the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) assessments. The State Board of Education (SBOE) must approve the per-student cost to private schools, which may not exceed the cost of administering the same assessment to a student enrolled in a public-school district. This item requests approval of these costs for the 2022–2023 school year.
STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Texas Education Code (TEC), §39.033.
TEC, §39.033 permits through an agreement with the Texas Education Agency (TEA), private schools to administer adopted assessment instruments if private schools reimburse TEA the cost for administering the assessment. The per-student cost of administering adopted assessments is determined by the SBOE.
The full text of statutory citations can be found in the statutory authority section of this agenda.
PREVIOUS BOARD ACTION: In November 2021, the SBOE approved the costs of administering the STAAR and TELPAS assessments to private school students for the 2021–2022 school year.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND JUSTIFICATION: Since the spring 1996 test administration, private schools, including home schools, have been eligible to participate on a voluntary basis in the Texas assessment program. During the 2021–2022 school year, participation in these voluntary assessments for grades 3 through 12 involved 17 private schools and 4,696 students. Attachment I shows the list of participating private schools from the spring 2022 administrations.
Under TEC, §39.033, private schools that administer the tests must enter into an agreement with TEA. As determined appropriate by the commissioner of education, the agreement requires private schools to provide the commissioner with information listed in TEC, §39.053(c) and §39.301(c) including indicators of academic performance and confidentiality safeguards under TEC, §39.030. Private schools that participate in the assessments must provide reimbursement for the cost of administering the assessments, which may not exceed the per-student cost of administering the same assessment to a student enrolled in a public school district. In addition, participating private schools must agree to test all eligible students and to administer the primary form of all subject-area tests available for a particular grade.
A critical component of the contract with private schools is the per-student cost for each instrument, which must be determined by the SBOE. Attachment II displays the recommended per-student cost for each test that will be available to private schools in the 2022–2023 school year. These figures were calculated by taking the actual costs from the agency’s contracts for development and estimated costs of administering and scoring tests then dividing the sum by the estimated number of tests that will be administered during the 2022–2023 school year. Using this method for determining the per-student cost ensures that the cost for assessing a private school student will not exceed the per-student cost for administering the same test to a public-school student. Costs cover developing tests and ancillary materials; administration of tests online; scoring tests; and reporting results.
MOTION TO BE CONSIDERED: The State Board of Education:
Approve the recommended per-student costs for administering the state assessments to private school students in the 2022–2023 school year as listed in Attachment II.
Staff Members Responsible:
Julie Cole, Director of Policy and Publications, Student Assessment
Greg Reck, Policy Analyst, Student Assessment
Attachment I:
Private School Participation List for Spring 2022 Administrations
Attachment II:
Recommended Private School Costs for the 2022–2023 School Year