A bill to end Texas' STAAR test in 2027 is likely to be signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, but some lawmakers and educators say they still have questions.
House Bill 8 replaces the annual assessment – which largely influences districts' accountability ratings – with three tests at the beginning, middle and end of the year.
The bill's author and House Education Chair Republican Rep. Brad Buckley told lawmakers at the Statehouse Wednesday the law increases academic accountability while assessing students' skills throughout the year.
HB8 "creates transformational change in our assessment and accountability system," he said, and "ends the high stakes and high-stress nature of one test, one day."
Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt sponsored HB8 in the Senate.
"What gets measured gets fixed," he said in a statement. "And HB 8 measures what matters — student success."
Bettencourt added that "HB 8 will restore classroom time, end wasteful lawsuits, and prepare Texas students for real-world achievement."
Buckley and other supporters had tried unsuccessfully to push similar legislation through during the regular session. That bill would have also scrapped the STAAR test in favor of three shorter tests over the course of the school year, but lawmakers couldn't agree on details.
Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin opposes HB8, urging Abbott to veto the bill because she said it doesn't deliver on its promise of shorter, lower-stress tests, and instead triples the number of tests students need to take.
"We're going to have this culture of teaching to this high-stakes test all year long that our kids now suffer too much from just at the end of the year," Hinojosa told KERA News.
But some educators welcome the change, even if specifics are still needed before the new tests take effect in 2027.
Sheila Walker, president of the local National Education Association, is cautiously optimistic toward HB8.
"I feel like it's a good thing and it's a start to not over-test kids," she said. "And maybe the anxiety of kids, you know, having teachers to be able to teach and not teach to the test."
She still wants details, though.
"Sometimes," she said, "when you change things, there's something else behind it."
Bill Zeeble is KERA's education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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