"Texas lawmakers propose replacing STAAR exam with three shorter tests" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Lawmakers in the Texas House and Senate introduced Monday similar bills to scrap the state’s standardized test, signaling newfound agreement between chamber leaders to finish a task they left incomplete earlier this year.

This year’s special legislative session is legislators’ second chance to revamp the test after negotiations between chambers on STAAR broke down in the final hours of the regular session.

It’s unclear if they have the time or will to succeed. Senators will hear public testimony on the proposal at a Wednesday hearing. But the proposal — like every other bill under consideration during the special session — is in limbo in the lower chambers after Texas House Democrats fled the state over redistricting, depriving the chamber of the number of members required to advance any legislation.

“I have three boys who are about to begin school. They all remind me … they want … for us to eliminate the STAR test,” said House Speaker Dustin Burrows, as part of a call on Democrats to return. “The governor has put that on the call. That is important. It is popular.”

Getting rid of STAAR is a popular idea among legislators. Many of their constituents have criticized the pressures students face taking the hours-long, end-of-the-year test, which is used to grade their school’s performance. The Texas Education Agency has insisted the test is a reliable tool to measure academic achievement.

Both House Bill 8 and Senate Bill 8 would replace STAAR with three shorter tests to be administered at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. The bills would require that:

• The year-end test is the only mandatory exam.
• Most students can complete the beginning- and middle-of-the-year test in 60 to 75 minutes, and the end-of-year test in 90 to 105 minutes.
• The TEA provides instructions to districts to help mitigate potential student test anxiety. It’s unclear what that would look like.
• Eighth graders continue to be tested on social studies. Lawmakers had previously considered making testing in that subject optional.

Under the proposed legislation, standardized testing would continue to weigh heavily in school ratings. TEA would also track metrics like student participation in pre-kindergarten and extracurriculars, as well as completion of workforce training courses, but would not have to factor those metrics into its ratings. The legislation would also solidify the TEA commissioner as the sole authority to refresh those standards.

Testing’s outsized influence on school ratings means SB 8 and HB 8 won’t ease the pressures on students, said Bob Popinski, with Raise Your Hand Texas, an education advocacy group that has pushed for a more comprehensive ratings system.

“This doesn't deplete the high-stakes testing, whatsoever,” Popinksi said. “Where you have one test driving the A-F accountability ratings, that still is a high-stakes test, especially when it's still required right now for high school kids to pass in order to graduate.”

The legislation would establish some checks on the testing and the school ratings systems. It would create a committee — which would include staff from the governor, lieutenant governor and the house speaker — to evaluate any changes to the school ratings system. A separate committee of teachers would also evaluate whether test questions match grade-level difficulty.

If enacted, students will not see changes for two more years. The agency has until the 2027-28 school year to make the new test.

The bill largely resembles the final proposal the Senate brought before House lawmakers during the regular session before negotiations fell apart. Parent and teacher advocates have criticized the Senate’s prior proposal for failing to meaningfully change the STAAR test.

“The bottom line is that What Gets Measured Gets Fixed, and this bill measures student success in a fairer way,” Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who has been a chief negotiator on STAAR, said in a written statement.

During the regular session, both chambers failed to find a middle ground on several fronts, including whether the Legislature or the TEA commissioner gets the final say on setting the ratings systems standards; how to deal with school districts that sue to block their accountability ratings; and whether to keep a mandatory social studies test.

Bettencourt’s spokesperson said the senator worked with the leaders of both chambers, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, as well as Rep. Brad Buckley, the Salado Republican who chairs the House’s public education committee, in drafting the new proposal to reconcile those differences.

The current STAAR test is designed to be completed in three hours, but testing sessions can go up to seven hours. That can be difficult for young students or children with special needs, who may struggle to sit still and focus on an exam for that long.

And students know their performance will be used to evaluate not just their skills, but also how effective their teachers and schools are. Parents, including some legislators, have described their kids not wanting to go to school on the days the test is administered because of that pressure.

Teachers also describe losing valuable instructional time to “teach to the test.” According to a Charles Butt Foundation survey of teachers across the state, about eight in 10 teachers said preparing for STAAR is a barrier to good teaching.

The test has an outsized influence on how schools are graded. Five Fs at a single campus is all it takes for the state to oust democratically elected school trustees and take over an entire district.

At one Austin middle school, which largely serves immigrant and refugee families, English is many students’ second or third language. Parents say their children are not performing well in STAAR because of the language barrier.

The school’s low academic performance — and the threat of a state takeover that comes with it — has been enough for the district to consider shutting down the campus or bringing a charter school network in to take over operations.

Regardless of what lawmakers end up with this special session, it’s unlikely that standardized testing will go away. Texas relies on the results to keep track of students’ math and reading performance and ensure they have the skills to succeed later in life.

Without it, the state wouldn’t have an unbiased way to determine whether a child is ready for the next grade in Texas, said Mary Lynn Pruneda, of policy group Texas 2036. Texas is one of the few states in the country where struggling students get extra support based on their performance on the standardized test, Pruneda explained.

“The way that we test our kids has always been, for decades, one of the most difficult conversations that we can have at a state legislature,” Pruneda said. “But I'm encouraged by the fact that Texas has always been ... at the forefront of strong accountability and assessment systems … I think we'll carry that through the special session.”

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on education pathways coverage.

Disclosure: Raise Your Hand Texas and Texas 2036 have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 13–15. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today!

TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/01/texas-legislature-special-session-staar-test/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.