New to Texas or teaching EBs? Have questions about TELPAS? Instead of piecing together answers from multiple TEA or district pages, read on from a veteran EB teacher about how to stay in compliance, answer parent and student questions, and support students in developing their fluency.
So what is it?
TELPAS, or the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System, is a state-mandated exam for all K-12 Bilingual or EB-identified students. The window for campuses to administer the TELPAS exam is a little over a month long, historically starting on President’s Day and ending on the last Friday in March.
Who takes it?
All active bilingual and EB students are required by TEA to take TELPAS. Students whose parents declined bilingual or EB services are also required to take TELPAS. Trust me when I say, every year we get an angry parent who doesn’t want their high school student taking TELPAS for the 10th year in a row, and I get it. So what do we need to do? It is crucial to have honest conversations with both parents and mainstream students or long-term EBs about doing their best on TELPAS. Need some tips and tricks to share with them? Check out my blog here.
How is the test administered?
The TELPAS exam is now completed 100% on the computer with an exception for students who qualify for TELPAS Alt. TELPAS Alt is a completely different beast, so click here for more information about that.
What is assessed on TELPAS?
The exam is broken into two parts: listening and speaking, reading and writing. Each domain is assessed at four levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and advanced high.
What is a passing score for TELPAS?
There isn’t a passing score as TELPAS is an exam that indicates your English proficiency level. Students who get a composite rating of advanced high may exit the EB program. This is important to know because it is a recent change from the 2023-2024 school year. This change allows more EBs the opportunity to exit. But first…
If a student is in 9th or 10th grade, they must also pass their STAAR exam to exit the EB program. What you need to know is that now, students may exit as long as they pass their English 1 or English EOC regardless of whether they were given linguistic accommodations. This is also a recent change that goes into effect for the 2024-2025 year.
What about students who are in 11th and 12th grades? For 11th graders who get a composite score of Advanced High, they will need to take a TEA-approved norm-referenced exam. In our district, we give these students the IOWA exam, which is also given on the computer. Now read carefully, because this is also a crucial change from 2023-2024. In previous years, TEA allowed school districts to reclassify EB students within the first 45 days of the following school year. However, this grace period is now gone. For your 11th-grade students who get a composite score of Advanced High, you must give them the IOWA exam before the end of the school year. Does your district have a plan in place for your juniors? I would ask.
Finally, seniors truly have no buy-in to do well on TELPAS. There is no point in exiting them from the program before they graduate.
How are listening and writing scored?
In the past, these were holistic ratings given to students by classroom teachers who observed the EB students’ proficiencies throughout the year. Now, this is part of the computerized exam, and all grade 4-12 responses are scored by AI with 25% of responses routed to humans for calibration and accuracy.
So now that you know what TELPAS is all about, here are some suggestions for helping your campus prepare for TELPAS:
- It is best practice to give students an entire day for the Reading and Writing exam, and then an entire day for the Listening and Speaking exam. Since the TELPAS window is also open for an entire month, it is a good idea to consider giving the two parts of the exam a week apart.
- Give the exam before your spring break. Students tend to have better attendance and are often more focused.
- The last two days of the TELPAS window should be used for makeup exams and for any EB students who have enrolled AND have been identified as EB.
While TELPAS has gotten easier over the years to administer to our students, it is still a mandated state exam with many rules and expectations. This blog is not meant to replace state training and the information found in TEA’s Manual here.
Need to organize TELPAS on your campus and unsure of where to start? Download my FREE TELPAS Checklist to help you have effective conversations with your campus admin and testing coordinator.
Best of luck to you and your EB student during this TELPAS season!
