Goodbye, STAAR Test. Hello, Something ‘Worse’

Texas has been tweaking and twisting its standardized testing system since it was first introduced in 1979, continuously looking for the best way to judge students’ capacity to learn, teachers’ ability to instruct and districts’ deservingness of a good rating. Now, they think they’ve finally done it, abandoning the current iteration, the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR), for a new system, the Student Success Tool of Academic Readiness (SSTAR), which will be implemented in the 2027-28 school year. Teachers, school districts and education stakeholders disagree. 

“This is not an improvement over the STAAR, and it may be worse,” said Clay Robison, a spokesperson for the Texas State Teachers Association. 

The new system, the SSTAR, is a series of three smaller tests distributed throughout the year rather than one large end-of-course cumulative test. Republican lawmakers have marketed the new testing system as reducing the pressure on student performance in a heavily weighted test, a common criticism of STAAR testing. 

The new testing system will also provide more immediate results, allowing teachers and parents to identify areas for improvement mid-year, rather than waiting for test results that can take weeks to receive, well after the end of the school year. Other perks described by proponents are limiting the need for practice tests and the usual allotment of dedicated test preparation hours, potentially freeing up hours of classroom learning time.  

All of that sounds really nice, but districts, teachers, and their unions are not thrilled about the change. This is mostly because it does little to improve the flaws created by the STAAR test and instead slaps a new name on the same system. 

“Lawmakers haven’t gotten rid of high-stakes testing. They’ve just rebranded it,” the president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers (Texas AFT),  Zeph Capo, said in a press release. “Our schools need true testing and accountability reform, not craven attempts to silence dissent, empower an appointed commissioner, and force students to take even more tests each year. Texas educators won’t be tempted by half-baked policies when there is bipartisan support for real reform.”

The Solution To High-Pressure, Anxiety-Inducing Tests? More Tests.  

As most parents know, STAAR week is a major event. The typical bell schedule is abandoned, and students are alphabetized and sequestered for the day. A lot rides on the STAAR test. School districts are rated A-F based on their test results. A failing grade could mean the Texas Education Agency (TEA) steps in to commandeer control of the district, unseating the entire board of trustees and the superintendent. 

The threat of a district takeover is real. TEA Commissioner Mike Morath has recently visited the Fort Worth Independent School District as he considers colonizing the district after a series of failed ratings at one elementary school. Schools have no choice but to perform well, and that pressure falls on teachers. But the new test follows the same rule. So though there are fewer questions and more opportunities for checkpoints, the exact same pressure to produce passing grades still exists, and the control of the commissioner has only been strengthened. 

“Despite changes to testing format and timing, the legislation leaves untouched the high-stakes, test-and-punish structure that educators and parents have consistently opposed,” wrote Teach The Vote, a branch of the Texas Association of Professional Educators. “Standardized test results would remain the primary measure in the A–F accountability system, meaning the new exams, no matter the name, would carry the same outsized weight as STAAR in driving ratings and interventions.”

In August, Dallas Independent School District celebrated an improvement in district-wide STAAR test scores, earning a B-rating.

“These results reflect the unwavering commitment of our educators, students, and families. None of this happens without them,” said Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde in a press release. “While there is still work to be done, these results are a clear sign that we are moving in the right direction, and we will not stop until every school is achieving at a high level. It’s what our kids deserve, and it’s the legacy we are committed to build for every student.”

One school, South Oak Cliff High School, increased its rating from a D to a B, falling one point shy of an A, between 2023 and 2024. But the district’s victory lap could be short-lived as students and teachers learn to adapt to a new type of testing—more testing.

Some students are just not good testers, one of the oldest criticisms of standardized testing. While lawmakers say a series of three shorter tests is likely to ease exam anxiety, this doesn’t negate the fact that they’re still high-stakes tests. Under the SSTAR system, the number of tests taken between Kindergarten and eighth grade will increase from 15 to 51, with 13 tests taken at the end of middle school. 

“It goes from one testing period during the year to three testing periods,” said Robison. “We thought that the whole idea of replacing STAAR was to reduce the stress from standardized testing. That was one of the reasons. Well, we don’t really see how this will do that.”

Maybe More Tests Could Be Okay, But Not Like This

The battle to abolish the STAAR test has been going on for years. Both sides of the aisle and both chambers of the Legislature support it, but neither agrees on the way to do it. Earlier in the session, the House cleared a bill that would similarly restructure standardized testing with a series of three smaller tests. The House version also included a provision that enforced a limit on the number of tests and introduced “norm-based exams to best measure student progress compared to their peers,” as opposed to the A-F model currently used.

“When the Texas Senate received the bill, it gutted all provisions to abolish the state’s high-stakes standardized testing system and instead proposed creating a supercharged version of the STAAR test,” wrote Northwest ISD, a school district located just above Fort Worth, in a press release. “Instead of collaborating with educators and parents, the Senate heeded calls from special interest lobbyists with no background in education.”

The new system also yields a lot of power to the governor-appointed Commissioner Morath, who can annually alter the standards and rigor of the A-F performance ratings.  

“These provisions have the effect of continually moving the goal post for districts, creating an unsustainable system in which failure seems inevitable,” wrote the Texas AFT. 

Morath is one of the few proponents of standardized testing, says Robison. 

“They left a lot of this up to the unelected education commissioner,” he said. “We don’t know how that’s going to come out, but we do know that he likes tests… A lot is resting on these accountability grades. The stress is not going to go away. It may increase, and it’s still going to interrupt classroom instruction.”