Assessment & Accountability
2025 Assessment & Accountability Legislative Priorities
- Expand the scope of Texas’ A-F accountability ratings system to include factors beyond STAAR test scores
- Limit STAAR test scores to 50% of any domain or the overall score for districts and schools in the state’s accountability ratings system
- Remove all high-stakes testing consequences for high school students
- Design and implement a formative assessment that helps inform instruction throughout the school year without adding additional testing time and pressure
Where We Stand on Assessment & Accountability
Texas public schools should be held to appropriate standards of quality through comprehensive assessment and accountability. Still, our schools do so much more to prepare students than a single test on a single day can measure.
We need an assessment and accountability system that accurately reflects academic performance and other measures of student progress. Raise Your Hand Texas supports real-time assessments that inform instruction, measure individual progress, and serve as one of multiple measures reflecting a student’s entire educational experience.
Texas teachers and public schools do the vital work of instruction, learning, and family and community engagement. Teachers and administrators address health and safety concerns to create an environment where all children can thrive. Today’s Texas A-F accountability system ignores other school and teacher quality indicators and student success. Today’s system oversimplifies the daily vital work on school campuses and classrooms.
Student Assessments Should Be Timely and Inform Instruction
STAAR tests should not be the only marker for grade advancement or high school graduation. Assessments that address individual student needs and provide teachers with appropriate, actionable data to inform instruction and address learning gaps are far more helpful to educators, students, and parents.
An overemphasis on STAAR undermines the student-centered process at the heart of quality assessments. The most effective assessments are low-stakes, identify strengths and weaknesses, and inform instruction throughout the school year. STAAR, as a single high-stakes test, cannot meet those needs.
STAAR Is Not Popular, Nor Effective
Almost nine out of 10 Texas parents are satisfied with their child’s public school education, compared with just 76% nationally. The 2024 Charles Butt Foundation Texas Education Poll also shows the STAAR does not rank among what Texans consider to be effective indicators of school quality.
Making an Impact
Too much emphasis is placed on the STAAR test results, and our current A-F accountability system fails to provide parents with a holistic look at how schools and teachers support the education of Texas students and the future of Texas as a world-class economy.
It’s time for Texas to lead on assessment and accountability and rethink the role of STAAR results, from graduation requirements to being the only measurement tool to assess our elementary and middle schools. Our students are more than one test on one day. It’s time to #MeasureWhatMattersTX.
Read our Measure What Matters Report that reimagines assessment and accountability for Texas public schools.
