The Week Before STAAR: What to Actually Do (And What to Drop)

Every spring, the week before STAAR looks the same in every building I've been in. Teachers plan intense five-day review rotations, schedule back-to-back practice tests, pull small groups during lunch, and send home study packets. They lose sleep designing them. They put in the extra hours. And when scores come back three months later, they can't point to a single thing that week did that the rest of the year hadn't already done.

The week before STAAR matters — but probably not the way you've been treating it. What moves scores at this point isn't more content. It's reducing anxiety, sharpening execution, and making sure your students walk in trusting what they already know.

Why Cramming the Week Before STAAR Doesn't Work

Trying to learn new information under time pressure is inefficient. Students who are being introduced to new content the week of the test are more likely to confuse it with what they already know than to add it cleanly to their existing knowledge. New information needs time to consolidate. There's no shortcut for that.

This is also the worst week to address everything at once. If a student doesn't understand proportional relationships in April, three sessions of small-group reteaching the Monday before STAAR is not going to fix it. What it will do is remind that student how much they don't know — which is the last thing you want them thinking about when they sit down with that test.

The students who perform best on STAAR are the ones who walk in believing they've been prepared — because they actually have been, over months of consistent instruction. Your job the week before isn't to catch everything you didn't cover. It's to make sure your students trust what they already know.

Action step: Make a list of everything you're planning to do the week before STAAR. For each item, ask: "If I removed this, would a well-prepared student be worse off?" If the answer is no — if it's review for the sake of feeling productive — cut it.

What Actually Helps Students in the Final 5 Days

These are the things that genuinely move performance the week before the test:

• Short, targeted warm-ups on high-frequency skills. Not full practice tests — five questions, focused on the two or three skill areas where your class historically loses the most points. This is as much a confidence exercise as a skill exercise.
• Reviewing test-taking process, not new content. How do you handle a question you're stuck on? What do you do when you've eliminated two options and still aren't sure? Students who have a process for uncertainty perform better than students who freeze. Give them a process.
• Explicit information about the test structure. How many questions are there? How long does it typically take most students? What happens if they finish early — can they go back? Students who don't know these things spend cognitive energy on logistics instead of answering questions.
• Rest and normal routine. This sounds soft but it isn't. A student who slept four hours because they were up with a review packet will not outperform a rested student who reviewed for 20 minutes and went to bed at a normal time. Tell your students this directly. Tell their families.

Action step: Write your week-before schedule right now, capping total review time at 20-25 minutes per class period. Fill the rest of your class time with normal, calm routine. Predictability reduces anxiety. Anxiety tanks performance.

What to Tell Your Students This Week

The messaging you give students this week matters more than most teachers acknowledge. Students pick up on teacher anxiety. If every period starts with "this is really important," if you're shortening lunch and canceling electives, if you look stressed — students read all of that as "we're in trouble." And students who think they're in trouble don't test well.

What to say instead:

• "You've been working on this all year. The test is asking you to show what you already know."
• "There will be questions that are hard. That's normal. Skip it, come back later, make your best choice."
• "One test on one day doesn't define you. Show up, try your best — that's all I'm asking."

Mean it when you say it. Students know the difference between performed reassurance and someone who actually believes in them. If you genuinely believe your students are prepared, they'll believe it too. That belief is worth more than any review packet you could print.

Action step: Write down three things your class has genuinely gotten better at this year — specific skills, not general impressions. Keep that list close this week. Reference it when you talk to your students about the test. Real growth beats empty encouragement every time.

The Day Before STAAR: What Matters and What Doesn't

The day before the test: do something light, familiar, and successful. A brief review game. A short passage they can handle confidently. A moment where students feel competent, not anxious. End class on a high note.

Do not:

• Give a full practice test
• Introduce any new vocabulary, strategy, or content
• Run a review session that goes until the bell
• Tell students what's going to be difficult on the test tomorrow

Send a brief message home reminding families about bedtime, a real breakfast, and arriving on time. Most families genuinely want to support their kids around STAAR but don't know what actually helps. Give them specifics: sleep, food, on time. That's it.

Action step: Draft a three-sentence message to send home the day before. Something like: "STAAR is tomorrow. Please make sure [name] gets a good night's sleep and eats a real breakfast before school. They're ready — we've worked hard all year." Send it. It matters more than you'd expect.

Test Morning: What Your Students Need From You

On test morning, your students need you to be calm, organized, and confident. Not performing confidence — actually calm. The energy in the room when students walk in sets the tone for the next three hours. If you're rushing around, looking stressed, or reminding students about the stakes as they're sitting down, you're adding to the cognitive load at exactly the wrong moment.

Have a routine for test morning. Same thing every time, every year. Students who know what to expect when they walk in can use their mental energy on the test instead of on figuring out what's happening.

Give your students one last reminder before they start: "Read every question carefully. Skip the ones that stump you and come back. Don't leave anything blank. You've got this." Say it once. Mean it. Then let them work.

For Teachers: Take Care of Yourself This Week Too

This one isn't in anyone's lesson plans, but it belongs here. The week before STAAR is one of the hardest stretches of the school year, especially if you're in a building where scores feel personal. You've done the work. You've spent months building skills. One extra week of review changes very little, and burning yourself out in the days before the test doesn't serve your students.

Leave at a reasonable time. Don't spend the weekend printing packets. If you're being asked to sacrifice planning time for emergency drills, push back — the research on pre-test stress is clear, and you know your students better than any emergency review schedule does.

Your students need a calm, confident teacher on test day. That's worth more than anything you could plan between now and Thursday morning. Take care of yourself so you can be that teacher.