The Texas Senate voted to replace the STAAR exam in public schools with plans to replace the test with three shorter exams.
The provision was part of HB 8, a larger school accountability bill by House Public Education Chair Rep. Brad Buckley and sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Paul Bettencourt.
The current STAAR tests, which are administered to students grade 3 through 12, have been the subject of criticism due to the amount of instructional time they take up and the way they force teachers to “teach to the test”. Because the tests also account for a large portion of a school’s official rating, it places high levels of stress on students and teachers to perform well.
The new system, which will be designed by the Texas Education Agency, is intended for use in all districts in the 20272028 school year, after a smaller pilot “beta” rollout the year before.
Tests will be administered to students three times: at the beginning of the year, in the middle of the year, and finally at the end. The first two tests are true assessments and are intended to see where students are academically as they open the school year and how they are progressing through the year. Results must be available to students, parents, and teachers within 48 hours of administration.
According to Bettencourt, students and schools will know where they stand almost immediately and allow educators to identify which students need help and in what subjects.
According to Bettencourt, tests will be shorter, and benchmark or practice exams will be limited.
Current STAAR testing derails the entire instructional process as teachers become singularly focused on preparing students for the exams which he said freezes education the week before the test. Only the third test will count towards school accountability scores.
The current scoring systems have been the subject of court battles since first implemented in 2017, is fully established in HB 8, requiring that all districts as well as individual campuses are rated on an A-F scale.