I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as I read these words from the fifth or sixth page of instructions to seventh-graders taking the writing State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) ...

FILE – In this Feb. 12, 2015, file photo, sixth grade students use a practice session to prepare for the the Common Core State Standards Test at Morgan Elementary School South in Stockport, Ohio.

The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, known as STAAR , are a series of state-mandated standardized tests used in Texas schools to assess a student’s achievements and knowledge. Diane ...

UPDATE, June 25: This story has been edited to include comments from Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde. A sharp spike in the number of Texas students who scored a zero on the writing ...

Of an estimated 18,646 Amarillo Independent School District students who took a State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam during the 2012-13 school year, about 1,700 are attending summer ...

Texas' use of computers to score written answers on the state standardized test is under scrutiny in Dallas after school officials learned that thousands of students were awarded marks that were too ...