Sample questions from the 8th grade Texas STAAR test

[Quietude]

Originally Posted by ClaraC

II doubt, even with a calculator, the majority of high school graduates could come up with the correct answers to most of the math questions listed here.

I wouldn't disagree with the gist of this, that a lot of "graduates" leave with a very substandard education.

But I'm trying to figure out why you think these problems are so exceptional and hard for 8th graders. They're not. As said, these may be the toughest ones on the exam but I think any B student in the last quarter of 8th grade should be able to get half of them right and make an earnest swing at the others (and probably skate through most of the rest on the test).

Do you not have children who have gone through this level of school (yet), or has it been a long time since you did? Because I really don't think any current or recent middle-school parent would think these questions exceptional.

Calculating the volume of a cylinder? Reasoning out a non-mathematical array question?

[ClaraC]

Here is a link with the actual STAAR tests, as released by the TEA by year:

https://tea.texas.gov/student.assess...est_Questions/

[ClaraC]

Originally Posted by Quietude

I wouldn't disagree with the gist of this, that a lot of "graduates" leave with a very substandard education.

But I'm trying to figure out why you think these problems are so exceptional and hard for 8th graders. They're not. As said, these may be the toughest ones on the exam but I think any B student in the last quarter of 8th grade should be able to get half of them right and make an earnest swing at the others (and probably skate through most of the rest on the test).

Do you not have children who have gone through this level of school (yet), or has it been a long time since you did? Because I really don't think any current or recent middle-school parent would think these questions exceptional.

Calculating the volume of a cylinder? Reasoning out a non-mathematical array question?

My children were in school in the last years of the TAKS test, and I don't think the questions were this difficult.

I've taken SAT practice tests with my kids, and I don't believe the questions were this hard.

[Quietude]

Originally Posted by ClaraC

My children were in school in the last years of the TAKS test, and I don't think the questions were this difficult.

I've taken SAT practice tests with my kids, and I don't believe the questions were this hard.

Okay. So far, you're pretty much in a minority of one.

We'd really have to see an entire sample test to judge the overall level of difficulty. I strongly suspect these represent the toughest examples, and that half of the questions are really 5-6th grade level.

[steveklein]

What was so hard about them? If an 8th grader is proficient in topics taught to them to that point, it should be easy peazy.

A couple of them may be time consuming if you don't know a trick or two, but still... basic arithmetic.

[ClaraC]

For comparison, here is the SAT Math test:

IMHO, it's not even comparable in difficulty to the 8th grade STAAR, and SAT test takers are able to use a calculator.

The first 10 questions of the 30 on the test are labeled "easy" in the answer key, and they are indeed easy.

https://collegereadiness.collegeboar...or-permitted/1

[Quietude]

The SAT questions require far more analysis and insight than the STAAR tests, as they should. The actual mathematical/calculation needs are about equal for both, as they should be.

Four-function math should be mastered - requiring no further learning - by 5th or 6th grade at the latest. After that, it's a matter of using those simple tools in increasingly complicated ways, not just demonstrating they can fill out another page of addition problems. Each one of the STAAR problems asks one clear question that needs both correct understanding and some simple math to solve. That should be within the grasp of a B student of that level.

The SAT problems required much closer reading, at least a few moments of analysis, and presented at least two answers each that were mathematically correct... but only one actually answered the question correctly. Much harder for the hasty or unwary student.

[ClaraC]

I just read through the entire SAT math test in the link, and I'd repeat - it's much easier than the 8th Grade STAAR, to me. I think the last questions 27-30 are difficult, but the first 10 I could answer very easily without a calculator, sometimes just by looking at the data and ball-parking the answer.

[Quietude]

Okay. Not much else to say. You're still a party of one on this.

[ClaraC]

Originally Posted by Quietude

Okay. Not much else to say. You're still a party of one on this.

Ok. So are you, I guess, for the purpose of this conversation.