Planning Strategically for STAAR Success with the TXMS
Preparing for STAAR success begins with MATHia. The Texas Math Solution (TXMS) employs the Learning Together and Learning Individually model. The Learning Together days when you utilize your print or digital lesson materials and the Learning Individually days are your MATHia days. MATHia is our intelligent software that provides just-in-time support and tracks student progress against fine-grained skills to deliver the right content needed to become proficient with the mathematics.
The article below dives into how to use MATHia, LiveLab, and the MATHia Reports available to you to help prepare your students for the STAAR test. At the bottom of this article is a recording of our TXMS Webinar addressing these frequently asked questions.
Planning Strategically for STAAR Success with the TXMS
A common misconception on Learning Individually days is that students should grab their device, log in to MATHia, and that’s it! No talking, no helping, no checking in on progress. Learning Individually time is just as collaborative and interactive as your Learning Together time.
There are a few best practices to consider when thinking about how structure your Learning Individually days:
Teacher is ACTIVE
- Monitoring
- Engaging
- Looking for misconceptions by using the Skills Report and addressing them in real time (catch & release)
Notebooks/Journaling for students
- Daily reflections
- Notes from concept builder workspaces
- Recording sheet & note catcher from mastery workspaces
Plan
- Have an introduction to your Learning Individually Days
- Make a connection to the material from the Learning Together days
- Data Talks
Use LiveLab
Additional Resource: Creating an Engaged and Productive MATHia Classroom
What is LiveLab and why should I use it?
LiveLab is Carnegie Learning’s live facilitation tool that empowers teachers with in-the-moment, actionable data to enable them to efficiently and effectively manage students working in MATHia during a classroom lab. Dynamic indicators instantly identify which students are working or idle, while providing alerts to the educator for students who may need additional support. Live notifications allow teachers to recognize students progressing through their content, or help those who were unable to master specific skills or complete certain activities.
LiveLab allows you to monitor how active and how productive your students are working. It allows you to prioritize students who are in the process of not being successful, to see what they are working on, and their current level of mastery.
The summary of all that information lives in LiveLab. Iit gives you a live feed without you needing to actively look at every student’s screen, to give you an understanding of where they are in the software.
LiveLab gives you the flexibility to do two things at once. Consider projectring LiveLab onto the projector or Smart board in your classroom, or running it on an Ipad or your laptop while you pull small groups. Let LiveLab do the heavy monitoring lifting for you! But remember, MATHia & LiveLab should ALWAYS be used together!
There are a lot of reports in MATHia, and they all tell a different story and they are all important. When preparing for the STAAR test, Carnegie Learning is recommending you focus on the Skills Report and the Standards Report.
The Skills Report tells me the fundamental skills a student has. And they are not about a grade level. The skills report tells you what a student can do, no matter the grade level, and tells you where they are weak, no matter the grade level. This allows you to address their weaknesses at the skill level without having to reteach all grade level content. It is intentionally focused on remediation. This report is helpful for special populations students as well, as it allows you to see a larger picture of the skill set they currently have.
The Standards Report is the first place to look for when designing STAAR review for your class. When looking at the Standards report, ask yourself, what standards need to come back in STAAR review? The Standards Report provides a living heat map that builds every time your students work in MATHia to help you better understand your students' understanding of the TEKS. The Standards Report provides real time feedback that is not summative. It allows you to gather data without administering an assessment to see what your students know and how well they know it. You can see a group summary in the Standards Report to quickly tell you which standards need to be retaught as you plan your whole class STAAR review.
Below is a table with a few frequent tasks you would want from MATHia reports that helps you identify which report to run.
| IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO... | THEN, RUN THIS REPORT: | REPORT TYPE |
|---|---|---|
| Identify current student placement in a class | Progress Report | Group or Student |
| Prepare for parents conferences or an IEP meeting | Progress Report or Skills Report | Student |
| Locate data helpful for grading | Progress Report or APLSE Report | Group |
| Group Students according to standards progress | Standards Report | Group |
| Group students according to skill mastery | Skills Report | Group |
| View a summary of how a student is progressing in the software | Progress Report | Group or Student |
| Review a student's most recent session | Session Report | Group or Student |
| Summarize student usage data | Session Report | Student |
Additional Resource: Using MATHia Reports
What other ways is MATHia helping my students prepare for the STAAR?
Beyond the information provided from the reports, it is important to note that MATHia is helping your students in other ways prepare for the STAAR test. MATHia requires the students to read and reason and employ their critical thinking capabilities. It asks them to solve problems in a variety of ways, further solidifying their mastery of a skill or standard. If a student can complete the work in MATHia you should feel confident in their ability to complete the work on the STAAR test.
STAAR Redesign & MATHia
With all this talk and focus on the STAAR and using MATHia to prepare, we are excited to begin to discuss how MATHia can best prepare your students for the STAAR Redesign coming in the 2022 - 2023 School Year! The new testing platform and question types will likely be a source of anxiety for students. However, MATHia is positioned to be the best test preparation tool as many of the new question types mirror problem types that are frequently used in MATHia already.
The Texas Math Solution Sample Center has launched a new section that highlights the new STAAR question types paired with videos of similar problem types in MATHia.
Webinar Recording