After two failed attempts to swap out the STAAR test, the Texas Legislature created House Bill 8 which does away with STAAR testing and replaces it with three tests given at the beginning, middle and end of the year.
This change sparked uncertainty from parents and students, unsure of what this new system could mean. The new testing also caused changes for testing coordinator, Joy Berry.
“We’ve been hearing in the news lately how scores have been going down [in] reading and math in particular,” Berry said. “So is that because we really just don’t know how to read and write and do math or is it because these tests are becoming unfair?… So that’s the issue. Is it because there’s so many problems with STAAR? Then fine, let’s revamp it,”
Student scores over the last year have dropped by 3% in English I and English II dropped by 4%. These scores from students across Texas have concerned the Texas Legislation for some time now.
“This problem has happened almost every year,” Berry said. “The House will have a bill, the Senate will have a bill, they bring it to committee, and they can’t agree and it dies. And so for the past several years, at least as long as I’ve had this job, that’s happened every year, and then nothing comes of it until they can. So finally, they seem to have a bill that’s going to go to the Governor…”
Governor Abbott officially signed the bill on September 18th, 2025. The school system predicts change to occur in the 2027-2028 school year, leaving the next few years filled with preparation for the coming changes.
“Since it’s coming in so late, we probably will not have any changes,” Dr. Berry said. “So nothing’s changing, at least for another two years. For the next couple years, we’re in it, we’re doing what we’re normally doing”
Because of this bill, students will now have to take a total of close to six state administered tests depending on the school because of the revamped STAAR and TSI. This does not include, however, PSATs, SATs, possible Interims or any other class tests students will have throughout the year. Some wonder if this new system will actually increase stress for students, especially those with test anxiety.
“There’s already so many tests on our schedule in addition to SAT and PSAT,” Berry said. “So trying to break that down into three things would be…not really manageable at the high school level. The other thing that I’m hearing is maybe one of those goes away. The English II EOC might go away, so maybe we have four instead of five that we have to pass to graduate.”
Based on the scores of the first test, students, parents and teachers can see specifically where a student needs growth and how to prepare more individually for the next test. Scores will be sent out within two days, not multiple weeks. Based on these positive attributes, others would argue how this new testing has more benefits than the current STAAR.
“Well, if you take the pressure off, I think a lot of times that we lose a little stress, and we will naturally do better.” Berry said. “So I could see it being a positive thing… if they really make it a point to not make this more of a strain again. The biggest thing… that makes a positive impact is making sure kids know this doesn’t define them.”
The new system comes into play in the 2027-2028 school year, affecting the current seventh graders and under. The hope is that now that the testing is being adjusted and revamped so that students will be less stressed and receive better scoring.
“I think at the high school level, we have to have some sort of measure to see that kids are proficient enough to be graduating, ” Dr. Berry said. “I think part of the reason they passed this law in the first place was to take some of that high stakes mentality out, to quit making it such a such a drain on teachers, students and families and so maybe it’s just truly testing where kids are: kind of an assessment of where people are in their in their learning and and we leave it at that.”
