The Texas House gave preliminary approval on May 6 to House Bill 4, a measure that would eliminate the STAAR exam and replace it with shorter, online tests given throughout the school year.
The goal is to reduce testing pressure and provide real-time feedback to improve instruction. The bill received near-unanimous support in the House, but it faces challenges in the Senate, where lawmakers have proposed a different approach, as first reported by The Texas Tribune.
HB 4 proposes testing students at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year, with results available within 24 hours. It would shift some oversight of assessments to the State Board of Education and require legislative approval for major changes to the A-F school rating system. Supporters say it will rebuild trust in Texas’ accountability system, while critics worry it could obscure how students meet grade-level expectations.
The bill was unanimously approved by the House Public Education Committee in an overnight session that ended early on April 30. After a daylong delay due to a prolonged floor session, the committee reconvened around 9 p.m. and worked until about 6:30 a.m. to review and adopt a substitute version of the bill.
“It is time for a new day in testing and accountability in the State of Texas,” said bill author Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado.
Co-author Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, said the bill would allow teachers to adjust instruction based on student progress, rather than teaching to a single high-stakes test.
“You see the starting point, what kind of progress they’ve made, and how they are doing at the end,” he said, as quoted by the Houston Chronicle. The assessments would follow a model piloted by the state since 2019 and fully conducted online, as has become standard since the pandemic.
