Through the 2026-27 school year, Texas public school students in third through 12th grade will continue taking the STAAR each spring. Beginning in fall 2027, students will take three shorter tests at the beginning, middle and end of the year under House Bill 8, the new law.
“House Bill 8 ends the high-stakes and high-stress nature of one test, one day,” bill author Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, said before the Texas House gave final approval to the measure Sept. 3.
Buckley said at the time that the new law will reduce test-related anxiety; give students and teachers feedback throughout the school year; and increase legislative oversight of Texas’ assessment and accountability systems. Critics of the plan, including most House Democrats and a few Republicans, said they were concerned it would increase the amount of time students spend taking exams and essentially create “another STAAR test” developed by the TEA.
“No parent has asked for this; no parent wants this,” Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, said on the House floor Sept. 3. “This bill was supposed to be [a] win for our public schools and for our kids. This is no win—this is a terrible bill.”
Breaking down the bill
Under HB 8, the TEA will create three new exams, and students will begin taking them in about two years, during the 2027-28 school year.
Schools will be required to administer a beginning-of-year assessment in late August or September, a mid-year assessment in January or February, and an end-of-year assessment in May. Students in grades 3-4 will be expected to complete the earlier exams in one hour and the year-end assessment within 90 minutes, while older students should complete the earlier exams in up to 75 minutes and spend up to 105 minutes on the end-of-year test, according to the bill.
The current STAAR is designed to last about three hours, according to the TEA.
Buckley said that school districts can continue administering third-party assessments, such as the MAP test, in the beginning and middle of the school year with TEA approval. All districts will be required to implement the state-developed end-of-year exam, which will be designed to measure year-over-year growth, he said.
Hinojosa said she did not think new state-owned exams would differ significantly from the STAAR.
“The way you restore trust in the test is you give it to an outside vendor,” Hinojosa said on the House floor Aug. 26. “We should have a separate entity, not all related to the TEA, who is creating those tests.”
House lawmakers voted in May to replace the STAAR with an existing third-party assessment, but that bill did not reach the governor’s desk due to a clash with state senators, who pushed for new state-owned exams. The final bill was a result of negotiations between Buckley and bill sponsor Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston.
Students’ results will be released within 48 hours after each new test is administered, a substantial change from the current system. According to the TEA, most students take the STAAR in April and receive their results in June.
How we got here
Lawmakers approved the testing overhaul amid widespread criticism from parents and educators, who have said the STAAR causes undue stress for students and does not help teachers improve instruction throughout the school year.
Some Texas education experts applauded the new assessment system, which they said will “reduce stress while giving a clearer picture of student progress” and increase teachers’ involvement in the development of the new exams.
“Texas families will finally have an assessment system that puts students first,” Mary Lynn Pruneda, the education policy director for the nonpartisan think tank Texas 2036, said in a Sept. 4 statement. “This bill ends the cycle of overtesting and replaces it with transparency, fairness and real accountability that helps every child succeed.”
Some House Democrats, however, said they were worried legislators were rushing through a “consequential” bill shortly after a new academic year began, meaning school leaders were unable to travel to the Capitol and speak to lawmakers.
“Normally, [school leaders] are texting us, telling us to support a bill or not. Right now, they’re frozen because they have no clue,” Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, said Aug. 26.
More details
The new tests will be created “in partnership with Texas teachers,” Buckley said. A committee of about 40 teachers from across Texas will review the state-developed tests section-by-section to ensure they are appropriate for each grade level and align with state education standards, the bill states.
“The current assessment and accountability system is complicated, lacks transparency, has minimal oversight and is not trusted by school leaders,” Buckley told House members Sept. 3. “House Bill 8 addresses each of these shortcomings and creates statutory requirements to create a more fair, clear, trusted system.”
The TEA will pilot potential exam questions in schools throughout the state as soon as this school year, according to the bill. The agency must release a plan for implementation of the new exams by February 2027, which is shortly after Texas’ next regular legislative session is set to begin. Buckley said this will give lawmakers an opportunity to provide feedback and make adjustments to the testing system before it takes effect in fall 2027.
HB 8 also requires that:
- Schools stop administering practice tests to prepare students for the new exams
- High schoolers no longer need to pass the English II test to graduate
- Scores on all three tests count toward schools’ A-F accountability ratings
- The TEA finalize changes to the accountability system by July 15 of each year
