BURBANK MIDDLE SCHOOL

STAAR A SUPPORT PLAN

Prepared for: Principal Rosa E. Hernandez
Prepared by: Special Education Department Chair A. Tatarskaja and Assistant Principal R. Pineda
October, 2015

BURBANK MIDDLE SCHOOL

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
OBJECTIVE
The goal of Burbank Middle School's STAAR A Support Plan is to equip, prepare, train and educate
students for success in their daily lives, classroom, STAAR A assessments, and education. "The
STAAR A will be administered online and will include online tools, accessibility features, and
embedded accommodations, and therefore will help Burbank prepare students taking STAAR A
assessments.
Burbank students are different, but they all deserve the same quality education. Burbank Middle
School has 98% identified at Free and Reduced Lunch. 1450 students make our middle school
one of the largest in the district. 10% of our students are in Special Education, and 30% of our
students are ELLs.
Burbank has a co-teach model for our students along with resource classes. Our regular
education teachers and our Special Education teachers work together to provide resources,
accommodations, and modifications to students with disabilities so that they can remain in the
regular classroom, but have access to all grade level material.

GOALS
Our goals are to effectively use technology to our students academic success, modify and adapt
instruction, and increase academic achievement.

SOLUTION
By implementing technology, our students will be able rehearse, practice, and master STAAR A
modifications while increasing and multiplying their learning opportunities. Through the use of
Kurzweil 3000, firefly k3000, and iPads, our students will be able to deeply and quickly
comprehend content as teachers model strategies, and modify instruction in a way that increases
academic achievement and student performance.

PROJECT OUTLINE
In order for Burbank to equip, prepare, train, and educate students for effective STAAR A
performance, we must
Establish an infrastructure for technology implementation.
Prepare hardware, resources, and access for daily instructional needs.

 Train support staff, teachers, and students for daily usage and modifications implementation.
Educate students using best teaching practices that create confidence and increase academic
performance.

BURBANK MIDDLE SCHOOL

STAAR A
OVERVIEW OF STAAR A
An accommodated version of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR),
STAAR A, is offered as an online assessment in the same grades and subjects as STAAR. The
passing standards for STAAR A are the same as any STAAR test. STAAR A will provide embedded
supports designed to help students with disabilities access the content being assessed. These
embedded supports include visual aids, graphic organizers, clarifications of construct-irrelevant
terms, and text-to-speech functionality.
Students receiving the following services may be administered STAAR A in one or more subjects:
Students with identified disabilities who are receiving special education services, or students
identified with dyslexia or a related disorder (as defined in Texas Education Code 38.003) and
receiving Section 504 services. If a student falls into one of these categories and receives
accommodations in instruction similar to those found in STAAR A, STAAR A Eligibility
Requirements should be reviewed.

Additional information and resources may be found at

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/STAARA/

BURBANK MIDDLE SCHOOL

REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, RESOURCES, AND STAFF NEEDED
Burbank Middle School will have to obtain software access, set aside hardware, install software
and applications, have in place storing locations and charging stations, equip support staff, train
teachers, prepare students, implement rotation schedule, obtain feedback, and evaluate plan.
Description
Computers or Laptops for Kurzweil usage
Kurzweil 3000 for teacher and student assistive interaction

Quantity
129
129 +

firefly K3000 for student iPad usage

129

iPads for firefly app and Kurzweil alternative and backup

129

PDF Expert for iPad and Kurzweil alternative and backup

129

Charging Stations

35

Locking Cabinets

Scanners

V. Carranza for hardware, software, resource support, and equipment

schedule
A. Martinez for scanning documents and resources
A. Tatarskaja for STAAR A Assessment questions
R. Pineda for obtaining plan feedback and evaluating success and
implementation
D. Garcia for technical support and classroom implementation.

BURBANK MIDDLE SCHOOL

MODIFICATION SOFTWARE SUPPORT

AVAILABLE SOFTWARE
This software and modifications will be used to create the most inclusive environment. Both
software and modifications will be helpful with students who have difficulties with reading and
writing independently. For our students who have higher level needs, being able to have this
resource and support makes content and resources much more student and teacher friendly. It is
also great for students who are not reading at their appropriate reading grade level. By
implementing these modifications, we will be empowering students by making them more selfconfident and independent. This plan will be available across the campus and therefore all
students (not just Special Education students) will have their academic needs served. Many
families in our community will be able to provide additional support at home by helping students
access resources from any computer or iPad device at school.
Kurzweil 3000 is available for our laptops, desktops, and macs. firefly K3000 is available for
download from the App Store for our iPads. PDF expert is also available for download for our
iPads.

KURZWEIL 3000
Wherever students are academically, all instructional content will be more accessible to them.
Kurzweil has a number of reading skills that can benefit students. Kurzweil may be used to scan
printed material, open up digital content, or even on the web with purpose of speedding up and
slowing down reading depending on each student need. The electronic implementation creates a
faithful representation of printed material with the added benefit of delivering additional
information and assistance immediately.
Kurzweil reads text using artificial voice and highlights content in a contrasting color to the text
making it easier for the student to follow along and increase reading fluency. An added benefit of
using Kurzweil is the accessibility of learning new vocabulary. Students are able to simply
highlight a word, select picture and an image illustrates the selected word. In addition to
generating images, Kurzweil can generate definitions, translations, and synonyms for the
selected vocabulary. Students are also able to highlight text and incorporate it into their notes.

With Kurzweils scanning capabilities, teachers will be able to continue instruction with their same
instructional resources while offering the possibility to differentiate instruction. A student with
traditional resources will be able to work along with a student using Kurzweil.

FIREFLY K3000
Both Kurzweil 3000 and firefly K3000 will provide literacy support to students in special education
and general education.
Unlike Kurzweil 3000, firefly K3000 is completely web based. Students can be using any browser
or operating system. Once students log in, they are able to access digital content that has either
being scanned or files that were created elsewhere. Students will be able to access their
teachers folder and instructional resources from any device, from multiple locations, and
different platforms.
Just as in Kurzweil, words are highlighted as they are spoken. If there are also any unknown
words, students may use the dictionary to obtain a definition of the word.

BURBANK MIDDLE SCHOOL

FireFly has the advantage of allowing all individuals to easily and quickly access scanned items.
Once a file opens. Students will be able to zoom in to text by simply pinching and expanding. To
listen to text, students will need to press the play button. Additionally, students are able to
select the type of place maker (highlight) for reading assistance (word, line, or paragraph).
With firefly, students will also have the option of reading Spanish texts by selecting Violetas
voice on the firefly options menu. For science and social studies, students will be able to listen to
the content, descriptions, and stories with assistance to build their vocabulary and content
knowledge with limited adult assistance required.

PDF EXPERT
PDF Expert is a tool already familiar to our campus, teachers, staff, and students. PDF Expert
allows students to view any PDF file needed, annotate it by using highlight and making remarks,
insert corrections by deleting and extracting pages to other PDF documents. Moreover, PDF
Expert offers students the unique opportunity to fill in PDF forms. Text fields, check boxes, radio
buttons and other form elements work as expected. Upon completion, the changes are saved in
accordance to PDF format specification. The documents can be shared to other electronic devices
or web storages for further viewing or modifying. With this software, students can give access to
the annotated files to their teachers and classmates.
With the accessibility options in iPads, students are able to access zoom capabilities, text to
speech, dictionary references, and translations services. Therefore, mimicking some of Kurzweil's
capabilities and in some aspects exceeding them. As a result, Burbank students will be able
access more content, comprehend even more, and practice instruction as closely related to the
STAAR A online assessment.

What's Next?
Description

Date

Contact Elizabeth Goodrich for Kurzweil Access

Oct. 20

Begin submitting documents

Oct. 22

Begin using iPads

Oct. 27

STAAR A Sample Items using computer labs

Nov. 3, 4, 7

Benchmark Assessment using iPads with accessibility options

Nov. 10 & 11

STAAR A Updates and technology training

Wednesdays

Practice Kurzweil and iPad tools to embed into instruction

Discuss testing modifications and accommodations

Cluster Meetings
Departments

Description
District Kurzweil 3000 Trainer

Date
TBA

SOFTWARE ACCESS
Burbank Middle School will have to obtain software access. There will be district representatives
who will train staff in the use of Kurzweil 3000 and firefly K3000. Once training takes place,
teachers and students will be able to use the resources in their daily instruction.

IMMEDIATE ACTION
Kurzweil 3000 is an integral resource in preparing our students for STAAR A; however, Burbank
Middle will initiate it's own plan as Kurzweil becomes available. As of this report, Burbank began
setting aside hardware for this support plan. Our technology support specialist has begun to
install and set up software and applications.
Kurzweil is most effective in desktops and laptops. Because of our lack of sufficient resources to
provided one on one access on the daily basis, Burbank will utilize iPads and PDF Expert by
October 27 to offer STAAR A's tools, accessibility features, and accommodations. As resources,
hardware, and software become available, Burbank will incorporate Kurzweil 3000 and firefly
K3000 as quickly as possible.
Our technology specialist will begin preparing storing locations and charging stations for the iPad
distribution.
Once approved, equipping support staff will be the priority. Ms. Carranza and Ms. Martinez will
familiarize themselves with resource scanning, Kurzweil usage, and document distribution. Ms.
Carranza will be responsible for software installation and support. In addition, she will scan
resources for 8th grade Math, Reading, Science, and Social Studies teachers. Ms. Martinez will be
responsible for scanning resources for 6th and 6th grade Math and Reading teachers. In addition,
Special Ed teachers will also receive training in scanning, iPad accessibility options, and Kurzweil
for daily teaching and usage.
Starting on October 22, teachers will begin submitting next week's planned materials or
resources to Ms. Carranza and Ms. Martinez for scanning. It will be the practice for teachers to
turn in documents by the last day of the week (Friday), so that teachers and students may access
them the next week (Monday). Prior to Kurzweil, documents will be distributed through a
website.

Training will begin as soon as it is approved during cluster time or department meetings. We will
first train Special education teachers in scanning documents, using it as a teaching tool, and for
monitoring student usage. The next phase will be to train STAAR content area teachers to use as
a teaching tool and too model student use. Finally, we will train students in effective classroom
usage.
In addition, students will also practice taking the STAAR A practice assessment online. We will
use the 6 computer labs with around 15 students per testing location. Laptops and desktops
around campus will have Kurzweil installed.
Before this plan's implementation and throughout its usage, the plan will be constantly
evaluated.

Permanent iPads in the Classroom

DISTRIBUTION IN PER-NEED BASIS
iPads will be distributed to STAAR tested content area teachers. Each teacher will receive enough
iPads to address their Special Education students as needed per class period. Teachers are
encouraged to use the firefly K3000 app for ease of use and to quickly access resources.
Teachers may use the iPads with their other class periods if they select to do so.

STORING

BURBANK MIDDLE SCHOOL

Teachers in the first and second floor will store the assigned iPad devices in the testing locking

areas. Those teachers without adequate storing areas will be provided with locking cabinets. As
of this report, only seven teachers will need to be provided with locking cabinets. It is preferable
that T-building teachers store devices in the main building unless adequate and approved storing
locations have been identified. As it becomes possible, more locking cabinets will be provided.

CHARGING DEVICES
Charging devices will be provided for teachers to recharge iPads. Locking cabinets will be
retrofitted to charge devices as they are stored. In some areas, iPads may be charged by
teachers' desktop. It is recommended that teachers assign managers for charging iPads.
Recommended times to charge devices in those areas are Power Period, lunch, and conference
period. As of this report, 35 charging stations are needed.

IPAD DISTRIBUTION
Not all Burbank teachers will get permanent iPads in the classroom. Devices will be distributed to
STAAR tested content area teachers. For example, 6th grade Math and Reading teachers will
receive enough iPads to address their Special Education students. The following numbers per
grade level are based on OA per teacher:
Teacher

Excel

Hobbs

Brown

Chaison

Vanguard

Bejko

Funderburk

Gray

Dual Language

Sandoval

Vasquez

Howell

Total

14

14

Teacher

Excel

Dominguez

Trenholm

King

Nuncio

Vanguard

Jobson

Holub

Lyons

Broussard

Dual Language

DeFalco

Salazar

Jaso

Total

22

12

BURBANK MIDDLE SCHOOL

Teacher

Excel

Washington

Taylor

Johnson

Boyd

Pope

Vanguard

Gray

KT

Fry

Schellberg

Dual Language

Plancarte

Castillo

Onia

Johnson

McMains

Adame

Total

16

22

NOTES AND TOTAL DISTRIBUTION

Ms. Tolbert has 5 students. 4 of 5 will need OA, which means Ms. Tolbert will need 4 desktops. As
of this report, we do not know if BSC can take a test on the computer. They are include that in
our plan, and will be edited and revised per Ms. Hernandez requests.
As of this report, the grand total of iPads needed is 129 (Including Ms. Tolbert). Keep in mind that
Burbank will have re-evaluations for about 15 students. Their qualifying areas may change, which
means that 129 will fluctuate up or down depending on their testing.