Assigning and Administering STAAR Summative Assessments: A Guide for Teachers

Assigning and Administering STAAR Summative Assessments: A Guide for Teachers

Assigning District Assessments to your Class

Assigning district-prepared assessments in Sirius Online uses the same workflow as adding courses to your Class Card. To get started, follow these three simple steps to login, add assessments to your class, and assign assessments using the
STAAR Summative Assessment Bank (SSAB):

  1. Access Sirius Online:
    Log in using your district’s single sign-on (SSO) or your self-registration account. For login issues, reach out to your course coordinator or IT support team.

Notes
Users with an SSO will sign in via Clever, ClassLink, Edlink, or their district learning management system (LMS).

  1. Add Assessment Content:
    From the welcome page, click the Content button on your class card. If you have multiple classes, start with the top class on your screen.

Notes
New teachers will not see a list of content and will see a screen displaying the message: There is no content assigned to this class.  Regardless of your view, follow the steps below to add the district assessments to your class.

A. Click the + Add Content button at the top right of the screen. A list of all available Assessment Folders published by your district will appear.  Please consult your school or district administrator for the district’s specific naming convention for the assessments to be administered.

B. Select the folder that you want to add to this class by selecting the white checkbox to the left of the folder. The folder itself could contain multiple assessments for the content area. Once you have selected the correct folder, click the orange Save button in the top right corner.

Idea
  1. Assessment folders are identified by a blue folder, making them easy to distinguish from Course folders.
  2. Use the Search feature to easily locate the Assessment folder from the drop-down menu.
  3. After adding a new assessment content folder, be sure to confirm it’s correctly associated with the intended classes as a program.

Notes
It may take a few minutes for the folder to appear in your Class Card Content section. Once it is successfully added, you will receive a system notification confirming its availability.

Success!  Repeat these above steps for each of your classes.  Teachers can now open their folders and preview or assign assessments for students.

  1. Assigning Assessments
Teachers assign assessments from the Content button on your class card, as they would any tests or activities from their main Sirius Online courses. Follow the steps below to assign the assessment to your students.

A. Click the blue Content button on the class card to access the content for the class. You will see the following screen with the content you have added to your class.

B. Open the main folder to reveal its contents. Open the subfolder to view the full list of assessments published by your school or district. Select “Open” again to launch and view the specific assessment.

C. From the Assessment card, you have several options:

    1. Preview the assessment to review its content.
    2. Use the Present feature to walk through the assessment with your class in a shared setting.
    3. Select Assign to distribute the assessment to students for independent completion.
    4. Choosing Assign initiates the administration process, making the assessment available to your selected students.

D. An assignment pop-up modal will appear and you will need to complete the assignment details and parameters.

The Assign To section displays the class selected in Step 2 for assessment assignment. From this view, you can choose to assign the assessment to:

    1. The entire class
    2. Specific groups 
    3. Individual students
    4. Alternatively, all of your classes, if needed

This flexibility allows you to tailor assessment delivery to meet instructional goals and student needs.

    1. Timeframe is the test administration dates set by the school or district administrator.
    2. Date Range allows teachers to assign the specific dates students will be administered the test within the given district testing window.
    3. Reports and Scores setting can be set by the teachers to determine actions that happen after the assessments are completed.
    4. Release to reports allows student scores to aggregate to the Standards and Course reports.
    5. Release scores to students allows students to see their scores after they have submitted the assessment and scoring has been completed.
    6. Students can review work and see their answers as well as the correct answers to missed test questions.
    7. Student Instructions allows teachers to provide any specific information for the student as they begin the assessment.

E. Once completed click the orange Assign button to send the assessment to students to complete.

F. A Success pop-up screen will appear, click No if this will be the only group of students to take the test.  Click Yes if you need to assign the assessment to others.

Success!  Repeat these above steps to create additional assignments.

Idea
Allow a few minutes for the test to be assigned. To confirm the assignment, navigate to Class Card > Assignment List and review the list of assessments.

Scoring Extended and Short Constructed Responses (ECRs and SCRs)

Scoring in the system is based solely on the first response a student submits for each item. This initial attempt is what appears on the scorecard, and associated reports. Even if a student later selects the correct answer after multiple tries, that success is not reflected in their recorded score. Now, the system does not track or report any subsequent responses—only the original submission is captured behind the scenes. This approach emphasizes accuracy on the first attempt and does not account for learning or correction during the assessment.

Open Response Items

  1. Navigate to Assignments on your score card, then click on Scored.

  1. Find the assessment that requires manual scoring, and click Score from the Student Work column.

  1. The assessment will open, toggle on the Only show manually Scored Items in the upper tool bar to open the items that need manual scoring.

  1.  The scoring panel with the field Points appears to the right of the response.

    1. To score an item, enter the number of points (usually up to 1) in the Points field.
    2. To give additional feedback, type your message in the Teacher Comments field.
    3. Click Save to record the score, the comments, or both.

  1. To score this item for all students, use the Previous Student and Next Student navigation buttons to move through each student’s submission. This allows you to review efficiently and score the item across your entire roster.
Idea
  1. Not all practice open responses need to be scored—for example, end-of-assignment student reflections. However, you’ll still have the option to add comments or provide feedback for students in these cases.
  2. When reviewing an entire assignment, it’s usually best to switch this toggle off so you can see all student responses.

Add the 2025–26 Sirius Online Tutorials Module

To help students become familiar with the STAAR testing environment, be sure to add the Sirius Online Tutorial module to your course list and assign the courses to the students. This tutorial introduces the structure of the test administration and the different item types students will encounter. It can be used as a whole-class activity or assigned for individual completion.

Locate this module near the top of your content list.
  1. Use the Sirius Tools Tutorial as a whole-class activity (projected using Present Mode) or assign it to students individually.
  2. Share the Student User Experiences PDF as a summary resource to reinforce tool usage.

SSAB Test Administration: Teacher Resources

  1. How Teachers Work with Assessments Created in SSAB: (YouTube, 8 minute video): A step-by-step walkthrough on adding folders and assigning assessments to students.
  2. Sirius Online User Guide: Teachers, Co-Teachers, and Tutors: A complete guide on how to implement Sirius Online.

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