Texas lawmakers finally approve plan for new standardized testing for public school students

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- A spokesperson in the governor's office confirmed Gov. Greg Abbott will sign House Bill 8, which will change the way Texas public school students are tested starting in the 2027-2028 school year.

Eliminating the current State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) was a bipartisan issue, but finding its replacement split Democrats and Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives.

HB 8 passed along party lines and State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, called on Abbott to veto the bill. "This bill betrays Texas students, parents, and teachers Governor Abbott, there’s only one right move for Texas kids: Veto HB 8," Hinojosa wrote in a news release.

"Texas is on a pathway to become number one in education which requires a strong accountability system," Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for the governor's office, said in a statement. "HB 8 replaces the outdated STAAR test with more modernized testing strategies that prioritize learning over testing and more effectively measure student progress. The Governor looks forward to signing this legislation when it reaches his desk."

What will the test look like?

Students between 3rd and 8th grade will continue taking the STAAR test for the next two school years. Starting in the fall of 2027 schools will switch to a three-test system. They will take a beginning-of-the-year test (BOY), middle-of-the-year test (MOY), and an end-of-the-year (EOY) test.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is tasked with creating the tests. School districts can choose to take an approved exam that is not created by the TEA for the BOY and MOY, but they are required to take the EOY created by the TEA.

Results are required to be reported within 48 hours of the exam to give parents and educators an idea of where children are in their education.

The results of the tests will factor into the final grade rating school districts receive each year. New to these three tests is a through-year indicator. Currently the rating system compares a students score from the previous year to the current year to see how they are progressing.

The new system will see how students are progressing throughout the year by looking at the three test scores. Lawmakers did put in a provision that would allow the legislature to course correct if the through-year indicator is negatively impacting the final grade for schools.

The TEA is required to write a report about the impact of through-year indicators on the final A-F grade for schools. That report is due by March of 2029.

What are lawmakers saying about it?

Hinojosa was against the final version of the bill because she thinks it will add more stress for students. "From third through eighth grade, right now, kids take 12 state mandated tests," Hinojosa explained. "That number goes up to 51 state mandated tests, and as a mother of kids who have attended Austin public schools, I know the pressure, the stress that the STAAR test puts on our kids. It is unacceptable."

State Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, the author of the bill, refutes that claim. He says the new system will take pressure off of kids and allow teachers more time to teach their students.

Currently students are only required to take an end-of-year exam, but some school districts give their students benchmarks throughout the year to prepare them for the STAAR. This bill bans benchmarking in schools, which means students will only have to take the three tests per year.

A big reason Hinojosa rejects this plan is because of the involvement of the TEA. She does not trust the agency to make a good test for students. "It is not a reliable test. Nobody trusts the Texas Education Agency anymore," Hinojosa explained.

But Republicans believe the new testing system will help students progress throughout the year and take the stress off a one-day, one-test system.

"We finally got a system that's going to make what measure gets fixed an A plus for all Texans," State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said when laying it out on the Senate floor. He sponsored the bill and helped install last minute changes to the final version, like requiring a social studies test for 8th grade students and an U.S. History end-of-course exam (EOC) for high school students.