STAAR testing elimination on Texas Legislature Special Session agenda

AUSTIN, Texas – Back on the agenda during this legislative special session: eliminating the STAAR exam.

The backstory:

Lawmakers were close to replacing the STAAR test at the end of the regular session, but they couldn’t come to an agreement.

Governor Greb Abbott is asking lawmakers to consider legislation to eliminate the STAAR test and replace it with effective tools to assess student progress and ensure school district accountability.

Since 2012, the STAAR test has been measuring students’ progress, grading students from an A-F ranking system.

During the regular session, HB4, which aimed to eliminate the STAAR test, passed through the Texas House. The bill would have replaced STAAR, with three tests taken at the beginning, middle and end of the year. 

The structure would give teachers results sooner rather than at the end of the year to check where students are at academically. It also would have revised the A-F accountability system.

However, the bill was stalled in the Senate, which had a different approach to reform in its version of the bill.

Some arguments heard this legislative session: leaders in the Texas Senate wanted to compare students to specific state standards, while leaders in the Texas House wanted to compare students in Texas to students in other states through a norm-referenced test.

Parents and school leaders believe the proposed changes will show how students are growing over time and not by grade level.

What they’re saying:

“The goal is not to over test students, it’s really just to get that information, again, the beginning of the middle of the year to better the support the student, and then also at the end of the years to make sure. That we are serving our students; we are helping them meet these grade level expectations,” says Bridget Worley, Chief State Impact Officer at Commit Partnership.

Adds Worley, “The last couple of years have been piloting this model of a state assessment that is available for districts to use in the beginning of the year, the middle of the year and the end of the year. The end of year has continuously been the summative assessment that has been used for accountability. But the beginning of the year and the middle year assessment are aligned to Texas standards (TEKS), therefore they are aligned and can give educators and parents again, a better indication of how well the student is performing in advance of that end of year assessment.”

What’s next:

Despite the bill’s failure, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is developing a potential replacement called the Texas Through-Year Assessment Pilot (TTAP), which will be evaluated in the upcoming school year.