HB 8 Replaces STAAR: Analyzing the Lingering Issues with Texas’ A-F Accountability
In the summer of 2025, at the end of the second called special session, the Texas Legislature passed…
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Until the 2026-27 school year, Texas public school students will take the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), which plays a significant role in measuring student achievement and determining school accountability ratings. And specifically for our elementary and middle schools, currently 100% of their A-F ratings are based solely on STAAR scores.
The Texas Legislature passed House Bill 8, creating a new statewide Student Success Tool to launch in 2027–28. While a step forward, it leaves the A–F accountability system, and its heavy dependence on test scores, largely unchanged.
Read our full statement on the passage of HB 8 here.
To meaningfully contribute to their communities and future workplaces, students need to do more than answer multiple-choice questions: they must collaborate effectively, think critically and creatively, and be ready to adapt to a rapidly shifting job market.
Texas’ current A–F accountability system ignores these measures of quality and reduces teaching and learning to a single measure, overlooking the essential and varied work happening in classrooms every day.
It’s time to #MeasureWhatMattersTX.
Texas needs an accountability system that is attentive to holistic student preparation and diverse drivers of long-term student outcomes. Raise Your Hand Texas supports an accountability system that measures the full scope of a student’s learning, which means:
Real-time assessments that guide instruction, track individual growth, and help close learning gaps.
Multiple measures of progress, not just standardized test results.
Transparent reporting that reflects the many services schools provide.
Raise Your Hand Texas believes it’s time to move away from the test-centric system we use to grade our public schools. While HB 8 makes changes to the assessment and accountability system, it fails to enact the bold reforms that would position Texas as a national leader in assessment and accountability.
Learn more about our past and present work to #MeasureWhatMattersTX.
Read our report from the Measure What Matters Assessment & Accountability Council
Hear what Texas Voices are saying about the state’s assessment and accountability system.
Learn how high-stakes tests are only part of what happens in our schools.
Read Texas Monthly and learn how “How Texas STAAR Test Took Over Public School Culture.”
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