Same STAAR, New Verse

What HB 8 Really Changes

We’ve been on quite a journey of understanding standardized testing, very specifically the infamous STAAR test. So, where are Texan school children and their families now when it comes to required assessments next year? Well, friends, not too far from where we started.

What STAAR is

STAAR is the state-developed, federally required accountability assessment in math, reading, social studies, and science, for students in grades 3rd-12th. Everyone will take the STAAR (or some variation of it) through the spring of 2027. As long as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) remains in place, states must submit quantifiable evidence of student progress, so high-stakes testing is not going anywhere.

What HB 8 says

House Bill 8 claims to do away with the STAAR and replace it with three “progress monitors” throughout the school year. The notion is that by giving small assessments in the beginning, middle, and end of the school year, school districts and the Texas Education Agency will obtain necessary data to measure school efficacy and student progress. In theory, progress monitoring is a highly effective educational tool because it provides real-time data which can be used for targeted intervention for students. You don’t want to wait until May to realize your child is not reading on grade level!

What districts already do

In fact, many Texas school districts use either home-grown or professional-grade progress monitoring successfully. HB 8 would clamp down on district-level benchmarks, but it leaves room for testing platforms such as the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress). The MAP is computer-adaptive and measures growth over time for students up to 9th grade. STAAR simply measures proficiency in one sitting. Texans must focus on children growing at least one academic year per school year. Progress monitoring is our best bet when it comes to focusing on growth and intervention. Plus, schools can still submit high quality progress monitoring data to communities and the TEA to show how kids are performing at school just as easily as posting STAAR reports.

Here’s where the shine wears off: school accountability is still tied to the State’s end of year assessment.

Now we should look at the big bad wolf - aka “high-stakes testing”.

Pressure on the schools

School district accountability is still dependent on the STAAR (or whatever it’s new name will be) and schools are on the hook for ensuring proper testing environments multiple times per year. This sounds simple enough, but ask any principal about how much time she spends creating schedules, deciding on coverage for kids who test a long time or need accommodations, keeping kids from congregating in the bathrooms, training teachers to administer the tests… whew! Testing day is a lot. Now imagine three testing days per grade level per grade subject each year. Some estimates have up to 51 tests being administered over the course of a year under this model.

And, at least for now, school accountability will hinge on the end of year test provided by the State. Let me give you a very common story in Texas. Imagine we gave a 3rd grader with no prior formal education who started school in August. Her beginning of year testing shows her as a pre-schooler, but her end of year testing shows her testing as a 2nd grader. Educationally, this is cause for a celebration! Talk about growth! Accountability-wise, this child failed because she was not 3rd grade proficient. This story happens all the time. Our districts receive kids from varying educational backgrounds and circumstances, and communities have both a legal and moral responsibility to educate them. Focusing on progress would change this story for the students and teachers who move mountains every day.

Pressure on the kids

There’s a line of thought that says that high pressure tests are simply a part of life, and to an extent, that’s true. Imagine if driving tests only measured how much better you got on each drive. “Last time you only hit three mailboxes. Let’s see if you can only hit one today.” That’s ludicrous! We need a clearcut answer of whether or not you’re safe on the roads. Baseline proficiency is a reasonable request.

I posit that students who still have baby teeth shouldn’t be stressed about a test. One of the reasons some families opt to homeschool or send their children to private school is to avoid all of the testing in public school because they don’t want that much stress on their children. The pressure trickles down to our kids, and because they are kids, they don’t have the maturity or experience to self-soothe during a high-stakes test. This leads to sick kids - both physically and emotionally.

Which test counts?

With prior TEA approval, schools can use the MAP for the beginning and middle of year assessments instead of the State-developed STAAR tests. This means that schools already accustomed to using MAP will have less of a transition than schools relying on the State’s version of the beginning and middle of year tests. Definitely a win. Another bright point is that tests such as SAT, IB, AP, etc. may count in lieu of the STAAR test. That’s a huge relief for our high schoolers.

Only the official Texas assessment can be used for the end of year test, however. MAP won’t count for the end of year results. To me, this feels a lot like taking an SAT-prep class and then going to take the ACT. Yes, probably there will be overlap, but to what extent? How reliable is that accountability score going to be for school districts if there’s a misalignment between the new STAAR and the MAP?

Accountability

The A-F accountability system will still be in place, and districts will receive their ratings based on the end of year test. And that my friends, is why HB 8 is still about high stakes testing. One test making consequential decisions.

Closing thoughts

I maintain that HB 8 is the same STAAR song—just a new verse. I’m glad lawmakers heard the call for change, but this version misses the mark. It was rushed, and it shows a plan that promised less testing may actually create more, while keeping the same high-stakes punch. This suggests it wasn’t thought through very well. The only test that matters now is whether every child makes real academic progress—because that’s the point of school. Let’s hope there’s continued room for refinement with HB 8 because progress monitoring is good, just not the way the State is proposing.