TAKS™ Information Booklets

The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS™) was implemented beginning in spring 2003. To provide you with a better understanding of TAKS™ and its connection to the statewide curriculum, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has developed newly revised editions of the TAKS™ information booklets. The information booklets were originally published in January 2002, before the first TAKS™ field test. Now, after several years of field tests and live administrations, we are able to provide an even more comprehensive picture of the testing program. We have clarified some of the existing material and, in some cases, provided new sample items and/or more explanations of certain item types. However, it is important to remember that these clarifications do not signify any change in the TAKS™ testing program. The objectives and student expectations assessed on TAKS™ remain unchanged.

We hope these revised versions of the TAKS™ information booklets will serve as a user-friendly resource to help you understand that the best preparation for TAKS™ is a coherent, TEKS-based instructional program that provides the level of support necessary for all students to reach their academic potential.

ORGANIZATION OF THE INFORMATION BOOKLETS

The purpose of the information booklets is to help Texas educators, students, parents, and other stakeholders understand more about the TAKS™ tests. These booklets are not intended to replace the teaching of the TEKS curriculum, provide the basis for the isolated teaching of skills in the form of narrow test preparation, or serve as the single information source about every aspect of the TAKS™ program. However, we believe that the booklets provide helpful explanations as well as show enough sample items, reading and writing selections, and prompts to give educators a good sense of the assessment.

Note that unlike the previous information booklets, each grade within a subject area is now presented as a separate booklet. However, it is still important that teachers review the information booklets for the grades both above and below the grade they teach. For example, eighth grade reading teachers who review the seventh grade booklet as well as the ninth grade booklet are able to develop a broader perspective of the TAKS™ reading assessment than if they study only the eighth grade booklet.

The information booklets for each subject area contain some information unique to that subject. For example, the mathematics chart that students use on TAKS™ is included for each grade at which mathematics is assessed. However, all booklets include the following information, which we consider critical for every subject-area TAKS™ test:

· an overview of the subject within the context of TAKS™

· a blueprint of the test-the number of items under each objective and the number of items on the test as a whole

· information that clarifies how to read the TEKS

· the reasons each objective and its TEKS student expectations are critical to student learning and success

· the objectives and TEKS student expectations that are included on TAKS™

· additional information about each objective that helps educators understand how it is assessed on TAKS™

· sample items that show some of the ways objectives are assessed