Second-called Special Session
What a difference a week makes! Both the House and Senate have passed bills from committees this week that relate to the items on the Governor’s call. Specifically regarding education, both the House and Senate education committees passed nearly identical bills (HB 8 and SB 9) that call for the replacement of STAAR. Both bills are expected to be voted on by the full House and Senate next week.
The bills passed by the Education committees would:
- Replace STAAR with three tests (beginning-of-year (BOY), middle-of-year (MOY), and end-of-year (EOY)) and make changes to end-of-course exams, beginning in 2027-28
- Reduce the overall length of end-of-year tests while allowing districts to use norm-referenced assessments for the beginning- and middle-of-year tests
- Require adopted and developed beginning-of-year and middle-of-year assessment instruments to be adaptive to each student
- Use technology to return results within two business days
- Limit benchmark testing
- Increase cut scores every five years to ensure Texas ranks in the top five states within 15 years while requiring advanced notice of changes to districts
- Restrict districts’ ability to legally challenge the accountability system.
- Allow additional dashboard metrics to be viewed, such as student engagement and workforce development information; but those metrics would not count toward school ratings
- Require TEA to post the number of questions needed to pass in advance of the test
- Require the TEA to provide notice of changes to the A-F system two years in advance
Legislative Corner is published periodically throughout the 89th Texas legislative session. For more information about RISD’s legislative involvement and priorities, please visit the legislative page here. Other resources include Texas Legislature Online (TLO) – find legislation (bills), committee hearings, legislative member info, and more; The Quorum Report – sign-up for “Daily Buzz” or a listing of political news articles; Texas Tribune – online daily news, also a data dashboard for education.
