Standards alignment

Texas Student Success Tool (SST)

Under House Bill 8, the Student Success Tool replaces STAAR beginning in the 2027–28 school year. STAAR stays in place for 2026–27. Grades 3–8 will take beginning-of-year, middle-of-year, and end-of-year assessments; the Algebra I, Biology, English I, and U.S. History end-of-course exams keep an end-of-year test, with optional beginning- and middle-of-year checkpoints.

None of these activities is test prep, and none should become it. They build what the SST blueprints reward over time: reading closely and citing evidence, writing and revising a constructed response, analyzing sources and competing claims, and explaining a conclusion from data. TEA's own caution applies here too: every student expectation must still be taught in full, not just the ones a blueprint lists.

Use the three checkpoints as one teaching loop: set a baseline at the beginning of the year, regroup and reteach at the middle, and review growth at the end. The activities marked below give students regular, low-stakes practice with the reasoning those checkpoints look for.

• RLA reading: comprehension and analysis of texts, with evidence14 activities
• RLA writing: composing, revising, and editing, including the extended constructed response11 activities
• Social studies: sources, claims, and the economics, science, technology, and society strand16 activities
• Science: interpreting models and data to build explanations from evidence0 activities
• Mathematics: data analysis and making reasoning visible4 activities

TEA: House Bill 8 student assessment SST Activities in the Learning Activities Hub

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

The Technology Applications TEKS (adopted 2022, required in grades K–8) include a digital citizenship strand with three substrands: social interactions (c)(8), ethics and laws (c)(9), and privacy, safety, and security (c)(10). They appear in §126.5–§126.10 for kindergarten through grade 5 and §126.17–§126.19 for grades 6–8. Gen AI activities also connect to the computational thinking, creativity and innovation, data literacy, and practical technology concepts strands.

Media literacy lives just as much in the English Language Arts and Reading TEKS: comprehension, response skills, multiple genres (including multimodal and digital texts), author's purpose and craft, composition, and inquiry and research. These are §110.2–§110.7 for K–5, §110.22–§110.24 for grades 6–8, and §110.36–§110.39 for English I–IV. Some activities also build the social studies skills strand and the science and engineering practices.

For professional learning activities, the TEKS listed are the student standards the educator is preparing to teach. Leadership and coaching sessions that don't lead straight to a student lesson list none, and neither do activities only for higher education.

• Technology Applications, digital citizenship: social interactions (c)(8)15 activities
• Technology Applications, digital citizenship: ethics and laws (c)(9)35 activities
• Technology Applications, digital citizenship: privacy, safety, and security (c)(10)36 activities
• Technology Applications: computational thinking19 activities
• Technology Applications: creativity and innovation9 activities
• Technology Applications: data literacy, management, and representation7 activities
• Technology Applications: practical technology concepts10 activities
• ELAR: comprehension skills5 activities
• ELAR: response skills7 activities
• ELAR: multiple genres, including multimodal and digital texts5 activities
• ELAR: author's purpose and craft6 activities
• ELAR: composition10 activities
• ELAR: inquiry and research15 activities
• Social studies skills (sources, frames of reference, bias, and evidence)15 activities
• Science: scientific and engineering practices4 activities

English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS)

The ELPS (19 TAC §74.4) apply in every content area. Their cross-curricular student expectations cover learning strategies, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and instruction must be communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded to each student's English proficiency level: beginning, intermediate, advanced, or advanced high.

• (c)(1)Learning strategies27 activities
• (c)(2)Listening74 activities
• (c)(3)Speaking109 activities
• (c)(4)Reading82 activities
• (c)(5)Writing88 activities

These activities give emergent bilingual students a lot to hold on to: cards that break ideas into small pieces, sorting that lets students show understanding before they can explain it, roles in discussion, and paper handouts with numbered paragraphs and drawing boxes. The whole site, including every handout, is also being translated into Spanish and Vietnamese, so students and families can work in their home language beside English.

Supports that work across the bank

• Cards and sorts: read each card aloud once, point out cognates, and accept pointing or placing a card as a first answer before asking for a sentence.
• Readings and mock posts: preview three to five key words with a picture or gesture, and use the paragraph numbers so students can cite evidence by number.
• Discussion: give sentence stems ("I think this is ___ because ___"), assign roles, and let partners rehearse in any language before sharing in English.
• Worksheets: allow drawing boxes, labeled sketches, and short phrases at beginning and intermediate levels; expect full sentences at advanced and advanced high.
• Home language: hand out the Spanish or Vietnamese version of a packet alongside the English one.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL 3.0)

CAST's UDL Guidelines 3.0 organize design around three principles: multiple means of engagement (the why of learning), representation (the what), and action and expression (the how). The goal is learner agency.

Several choices in this bank are UDL moves by design: every activity has an unplugged path and a digital path, handouts come in several formats, each activity lists adaptations for other grade bands and learners, and evidence of learning is named up front so goals are clear. The checkpoints below show where each activity goes further.

Alignment by activity