The TAKS test is based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). One of the first ways that a teacher can teach the TAKS test is to organize the TEKS required for that grade level and subject. As a teacher, you should plan to cover all of the TEKS for that class before the test. During each unit, identify skills that a majority of the students are struggling with. Be sure to review those skills often. One way to do that is to set up a skills center in your classroom where students spend time each week reviewing those skills.
Another idea for teaching the TAKS test is to have direct instruction in strategies for taking it. There are strategies about how to read and analyze the questions to increase the probability of choosing the correct answer. For example, two answers are distracting answers that are completely wrong. If students can identify the distractions, yincrease their chance of choosing the correct answer.
Practice tests are also an effective way to teach the TAKS test. However, just drilling and handing out released TAKS tests is a demotivating way for students to practice. Consider organizing students into games or competitions answering the questions from released TAKS test. This exposes them to a large amount of sample questions quickly, in a way that they find interesting. Students can also teach each others the strategies in cooperative games.
The last way that you can improve your students' TAKS scores is to make sure that you ask questions in a way that challenge students to use higher-order thinking skills. Bloom's taxonomy of higher-order thinking skills organizes the different ways that a question can be asked according to the amount of effort put forth by the learner. By planning questions that challenge students at the highest level, students are prepared for the kinds of questions that are on the TAKS test.