Texas lawmakers are moving to eliminate the STAAR test and replace it with three shorter assessments aimed at reducing student stress and giving teachers faster feedback.
Senator Paul Bettencourt and House Public Education Chair Representative Brad Buckley have filed identical bills to replace the STAAR test with three shorter assessments.
Senate Bill 8 and House Bill 8 were filed in the 89th Special Session called by Governor Greg Abbott. The legislation aims to eliminate the STAAR test in favor of instructionally supportive assessments given at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.
“Texas parents deserve to know how their schools are doing, students deserve a better way to show what they’ve learned, and taxpayers deserve an end to these endless lawsuits,” Bettencourt said.
Key provisions in SB 8 include replacing STAAR with three shorter assessments, delivering results within 48 hours, limiting excessive benchmark testing, requiring annual A-F ratings, updating cut scores every five years, and prohibiting taxpayer-funded lawsuits against state actions except in narrow cases.
“This is the same solid, bipartisan Conference Committee Report, drafted with Chair Buckley and members last session, now improved for an even stronger start with identical bill filings SB 8/HB 8,” Bettencourt said. “The bottom line is that What Gets Measured Gets Fixed, and this bill measures student success in a fairer way while ending the era of STAAR stress tests and taxpayer-funded lawsuits against the public accountability system in Texas.”
The bill’s filing comes after a second major legal win for the state’s A-F school rating system. On July 8, the 15th Court of Appeals unanimously ruled to release the 2023-2024 ratings, marking the second defeat for 30 school districts challenging the ratings in court.
“With this bill, we begin the process of eliminating the STAAR test and replacing it with meaningful, student-centered assessments that are instructionally actionable and provide real insight for teachers and parents,” Buckley said. “SB 8/HB 8 shifts the emphasis away from teaching to a test and back to real learning in the classroom.”
SB 8 has 12 bipartisan Senate joint authors, including Senators Creighton, Blanco, Hall, King, Campbell, Huffman, Middleton, Hagenbuch, Hughes, Paxton, Adam Hinojosa, and Sparks.