1. Oral/Signed Administration Guidelines
Assessment & Accountability
Spring 2017

2. Resources
2017 Oral/Signed Administration Guidelines Manual from TEA, available for download at
Oral Administration Policy Document available for download at
2017 Test Administrator Manual

3. Oral Administration
Oral administration is a designated support in which test questions and answer choices are read aloud or signed to a student who meets the eligibility criteria. For students taking STAAR online, the oral administration is delivered using text-to-speech functionality. The eligibility criteria and details about oral administration are located in the Oral/Signed Administration policy found on the Accommodations Resources webpage.

4. Eligibility Criteria
It is the responsibility of the ARD, 504, LPAC, or other committee of knowledgeable persons to appropriately identify student eligibility.
Further, that committee must appropriately document the level of reading support the student needs.
A student may request a change in the level of reading support provided during testing ONLY if this option is documented.
Test administrators must be made aware:
the level of reading support each student is to receive
whether the student can change the level of reading support during testing, based on the documentation in the student’s paperwork
and, test administrators must explain the level of support they are allowed to provide

5. Eligibility Criteria A student may use this accommodation if he or she
Routinely and effectively uses the accommodation during classroom instruction and classroom testing, and
Meets at least one of the following:
The student is a current ELL.
The student is identified with dyslexia or a related disorder per TEC §
The student has documented evidence of reading difficulties.

6. Training for Reading Aloud Secure Test Content
The campus coordinator will provide training in the procedures specific to orally administering test content as outlined in these guidelines. When applicable, the following documents should also be reviewed.
The Oral/Signed Administration accommodation policy
The paper administration guides for STAAR with Embedded Supports
The General Instructions for Administering State Assessments to Students Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

7. Paper Assessments: When can oral administration be used?
STAAR and STAAR Spanish mathematics, science and social studies
Test questions, answer choices, required reference materials, and allowable accommodations may be read aloud to a student
STAAR and STAAR Spanish reading
STAAR and STAAR Spanish reading – reading selections may NOT be read aloud to a student
STAAR and STAAR Spanish writing
Required reference materials and allowable accommodations may be read aloud to a student
Revising and editing passages, test questions and answer choices may NOT be read aloud to a student

8. Paper Assessments: When can oral administration be used?
STAAR English I & II reading section
Test questions, answer choices and required reference materials may be read aloud to a student
Reading selections may NOT be read aloud to a student
STAAR English I & II writing section
Required reference materials and allowable accommodations may be read aloud to a student
Revising and editing passages, test questions and answer choices may NOT be read aloud to a student

9. Online Assessments: When can oral administration be used?
STAAR mathematics, science and social studies
Test questions, answer choices, and embedded supports can be read aloud to student by text-to-speech (TTS)
Required reference materials and allowable accommodations may be read aloud to a student by test administrator
STAAR reading
Test questions, answer choices and embedded supports can be read aloud to a student by TTS
Required reference materials and allowable accommodations bay be read aloud to a student by a test administrator
Reading selections CANNOT be read aloud to a student by TTS or a test administrator

10. Online Assessments: When can oral administration be used?
STAAR writing
Revising passages, revising test questions and answer choices, and embedded supports can be read aloud to a student by TTS
Required reference materials and allowable accommodations may be read aloud to a student by a test administrator
Editing passages, test questions, and answer choices CANNOT be read aloud to a student by TTS or a test administrator
STAAR English I & II
Reading test questions and answer choices, revising passages, revising test questions and answer choices, and embedded supports can be read aloud to a student by TTS
Reading selections, editing passages, and editing test questions and answer choices CANNOT be read aloud to a student by TTS or a test administrator

11. Test Forms
When giving an oral administration in which the test administrator reads ALL test questions and answer choices throughout a paper assessment for which there is more than one test form available, the test administrator must have a test booklet with the same form number as the students.
For STAAR and STAAR Spanish, Form 1 is the overage in all shipments. This should be the form that is used for oral administration groupings.
For paper versions of STAAR with Embedded Supports, there is only one form. Therefore, the test administrator and the students should automatically have the same form.

12. Test Forms
When orally administering parts of test questions or answer choices at a student’s request on a paper assessment for administrations where there are more than one test form available, it is acceptable read over the student’s shoulder. However, if the test administrator reads out of a separate test booklet, the test administrator MUST have a test booklet with the same form number as the student.
When orally administering a braille assessment the test administrator should use the regular-print test booklet that is included with the shipment of braille materials. Test administrators must also refer to the specific braille instructions provided in the braille materials.

13. Ensure Test Security
All security measures outlined in the STAAR Test Administrator Manuals must be followed.
Any type of oral administration in which the test administrator has to view a secure state assessment requires that the test administrator sign the Oath of Test Security and Confidentiality for Test Administrator document. This includes the bottom section of the oath for test administrators who are authorized to view secure state assessments.
Responding to test questions, making notes about test questions, and discussing the content of the assessment at any time are prohibited. In addition, test administrators may not write notes or calculations in a test booklet.
Test administrators must not rephrase, clarify, or interpret any test content.
Unauthorized verbal and nonverbal assistance may not be provided to students.

14. Test Administration

15. Test Administration
Depending on the content area, test administrators may read aloud all or only certain parts of a state assessment.
Mathematics, science, and social studies: The entire mathematics, science and social studies assessments may be read aloud to a student.
Reading: For reading assessments (including the reading section of English EOCs), only the questions and answer choices may be read aloud. The reading selections may NEVER be read aloud to a student.
Writing: No part of the revising or editing section of a writing assessment (including the writing section of the English EOCs) may be read aloud unless otherwise specified by TEA. However, reading of the writing prompt if allowable for any student who requests this assistance. tests (except the English I-II writing section)

16. Test Administration
Test administrators may read aloud supplementary materials.
Required reference materials may be read aloud to students eligible for an oral administration. This includes the dictionary during grades 6-8 and EOC reading and writing assessments, as well as the state-supplied mathematics and science reference materials.
Allowable accommodations may be read aloud to students eligible for an oral administration. This includes a dictionary at grades 3-5 or a supplemental aid.

17. Test Administration
If a student needs all of the test questions read aloud, the test questions must be read aloud in the order they are presented.
For reading assessments, the student must independently read the selection first, and then the test administrator may read aloud each test question in the order presented.
If a student is working through the assessment independently, requesting only certain words, phrases, or sentences to be read at various times, the test administrator will read aloud what the student requests when he or she requests it. No particular order must be followed.

18. Test Administration
Test administrators may read aloud any word, phrase, or sentence in the test questions and answer choices as many times as needed. At the end of the assessment, the test administrator may go back to reread a question and its answer choices at a student’s request.
Test administrators must be familiar with content-specific terms and symbols.
Test administrators must keep their voice inflection neutral; however, words that are boldfaced, italicized, or printed entirely in capital letters must be emphasized.
No test content may be rephrased, clarified or interpreted.

19. Test Administration
Test administrators must understand when they may read aloud all or only certain parts of a state assessment. Instructions for reading aloud different types of test questions for every subject can be found below.
If a student needs all of the test questions read aloud, the test questions must be read aloud in the order they are presented.
It is important to understand what constitutes a test question. A test administrator must understand that any part of the test question may be read aloud. This applies to words in the questions and the answer choices, including words in graphics (e.g., table, graph, grid, diagram, map, photograph, cartoon, or picture) and boxed text pulled directly from a selection. Specific information regarding how a test question should be read aloud can be found in following slides.

20. Guidelines for Reading Aloud Various Types of Test Questions

21. Guidelines for Reading Aloud Various Types of Test Questions
The guidelines and examples in this presentation reflect content tested on a STAAR assessment from various grade levels and subject areas. Not every type of test question is addressed.
Test administrators are allowed to generalize from these guidelines and examples when reading aloud other types of test questions.
Additional guidelines for signing test content to a student who is deaf or hard of hearing are provided in the General Instructions for Administering Statewide Assessments to Students Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing document.

22. Guidelines for Mathematics

23. Guidelines for Mathematics

24. Guidelines for Mathematics

25. Guidelines for Mathematics
Titles, labels, and
numbers may be
read aloud.
Words in key
may be read aloud.
Clock faces (digital
or analog) may NOT
be read aloud.
Labels may be read
aloud.

26. Guidelines for Mathematics
Point, line, and axis
labels may be read
aloud
Labels, numbers, and
boxed text may be
read aloud.

27. Guidelines for Mathematics
Words and numbers
on images of money
may NOT be read aloud.
Letters and numbers
may be read aloud.
Title and categories may be read aloud.
Symbols may be read aloud as “symbol.” They may NOT be described or interpreted.

28. Guidelines for Mathematics

29. Guidelines for Mathematics

30. Guidelines for Mathematics

31. Guidelines for Mathematics

32. Guidelines for Mathematics

33. Guidelines for Mathematics

34. Guidelines for Mathematics

35. Guidelines for Reading

36. Guidelines for Reading
It is important to note that reading aloud reading selections is NOT allowed. The guidelines in this section refer to reading test questions and directions. In addition, the guidelines in this section should be followed when reading aloud expository and persuasive writing prompts.

37. Guidelines for Reading

38. Guidelines for Reading

39. Guidelines for Reading
All words may be read aloud.
It is NOT allowable to indicate what the arrow symbol represents.
Heading and other
words may be read
aloud.

40. Guidelines for Reading
All words may be read aloud.

41. Guidelines for Science

42. Guidelines for Science

43. Guidelines for Science

44. Guidelines for Science

45. Guidelines for Science
Titles, labels, and numbers may be read aloud.
Words in key may be read aloud.
Title, labels, and percents may be read aloud.

46. Guidelines for Science
Letters and words may be read aloud.
Labels, numbers, and letters may be read aloud.
Abbreviations may
be read aloud as the
words they represent.

47. Guidelines for Science
It is NOT allowable to
indicate what the arrow symbol represents.
All labels may be read aloud.

48. Guidelines for Science
Title, labels, and numbers may be read aloud.
Words in key may be read aloud.
Labels may be read aloud.

49. Guidelines for Science
Title, headings, and numbers may be read aloud.
Abbreviations may be read aloud as the words they represent.

50. Guidelines for Science

51. Guidelines for Science

52. Guidelines for Social Studies

53. Guidelines for Social Studies

54. Guidelines for Social Studies

55. Guidelines for Social Studies
Titles, labels, and numbers may be read aloud.
Headings and other words may be read aloud.
It is NOT allowable to indicate what the arrow symbol represents.

56. Guidelines for Social Studies
Titles, labels, and percents may be read aloud.
All words may be read aloud.
It is NOT allowable to indicate what the arrow symbol represents.

57. Guidelines for Social Studies
Titles, labels, and numbers may be read aloud.
Symbols may NOT be described or interpreted.

58. Guidelines for Social Studies
Titles, labels, and numbers may be read aloud.
Letters on compass rose may be read aloud as letters.

59. Guidelines for Social Studies
Words may be read aloud.
Words and numbers may be read aloud.

60. Guidelines for Social Studies
Titles, headings, and numbers may be read aloud.

61. Guidelines for Social Studies
Titles, labels, and numbers may be read aloud.
It is NOT allowable to indicate what the arrow symbol represents.

62. Guidelines for Social Studies
All words and numbers may be read aloud.

63. Examples

64. Mathematics Example
Any text in the test question and answer choices may be read aloud. This example may be read aloud as follows.
“The model below is shaded to represent three and seven over one hundred. Which decimal does the model represent? A, three point zero zero seven. B, three point seven. C, three point zero seven. D, zero point three seven.”

65. Mathematics Example
The question may be read aloud, as well as labels in the coordinate grid. However, reading aloud the answer choices must follow the guidelines in this document. Only individual numbers and variables within the notation may be read aloud if the student requests this assistance. The test administrator may NOT read aloud each answer choice in its entirety.

66. Mathematics Example
Any text in the test question or answer choices may be read aloud; however, the triangle
and circle should be read aloud as “blank.” For example, the first equation may be read
aloud as “blank plus blank equals 11.”

67. Reading Example `
Any text in the test question or answer choices may be read aloud, including the boxed
text pulled directly from the reading selection.

68. Science Examples
Any text in the question may be read aloud, including the “Record” directions.
The chemical
equation may be read aloud as, “C three H eight plus five O two symbol three C O two plus four H two O.”
It is NOT allowable to indicate what the arrow represents.

69. Science Examples The first sentence may be read aloud in its entirety.
For the graphic, the test administrator should say something similar to, “Take a few moments to look at the graphic and tell me whether you would like anything read aloud. Then let me know when you are ready to go on.”
If needed, the information in the graphic may be read aloud as, “F air equals eighty four N.”
The text under the graphic and in the answer choices may be read aloud; however, reading aloud the answer choices must follow the guidelines in this document.
For example, answer choice A may be read aloud as, “zero point six six meters per second squared backward, because…”

70. Social Studies Example
For the graphic, the test administrator should say something similar to, “Take a few moments to look at the map and tell me whether you would like anything read aloud. Then let me know when you are ready to go on.” For example, if the student needs help reading information in the key aloud, the test administrator should point to the words and say, “This says over one million.” However, symbols may NOT be described or interpreted. Once students are ready to go on, any text in the test question and answer
choices may be read aloud.