Changes are on the way for Texas school districts after new laws were adopted during the recent legislative session. Among those changes is a shift from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness to a new assessment program.

STAAR is the state standardized test utilized by school districts to measure growth for students in grades 3-8 and in high school. 

House Bill 8 was passed during the second called session of the 89th Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in September. 

The bill replaces the STAAR starting with the 2027-2028 school year. 
Starting with that school year, STAAR will be replaced with the Student Success Tool (SST). 

“Extensive outreach is being planned as the SST is being designed. HB 8 requires TEA to report a transition plan and status of the new assessment program to the legislature by Feb. 15, 2027,” TEA stated in a release. “The transition report will outline the development and implementation plan for the new program and must include feedback from parents, students and teachers.”

During the 90th Texas Legislature in spring 2027, plans and adjustments will be made before the new assessment program is implemented for that school year. 

SST will feature beginning-of-year (BOY), middle-of-year (MOY) and end-of-year (EOY) assessments for students in grades 3-8 and for Spanish students in grades 3-5. 

BOY and MOY assessments are optional for districts for end-of-course (EOC) assessments for Algebra I, Biology, English I and U.S. History.

The new assessment is made to deliver students’ results quicker to districts. TEA must notify school districts of BOY, MOY and EOY assessment results no later than two business days after the close of the testing window.

The state is eliminating the English II EOC assessment and it will also be removed as a graduation requirement. Students within the graduating classes of 2026 and 2027 will still have the STAAR English II EOC within their graduation requirements.

“Students will still have to pass EOC assessments to meet high school graduation requirements,” TEA stated. “More information on the transition plan for high school graduation assessments for 2028 and beyond will be provided in the future.”

SST assessments are required to be shorter than those with STAAR and designed to support accommodations for students. 

“The BOY and MOY assessments will be adaptive to allow for shorter assessments that provide the most useful student-level information,” TEA stated in a release. “The EOY assessment will be static to ensure parents and teachers have full access to all released test questions each school year.”

The adaptive BOY and MOY assessments adjusts test questions based on the ability of each student. Test questions provided to students are based on the student’s response to the previous question.

“Because the assessment adapts or adjusts as the student moves through the assessment, each student will experience a different set of test questions,” TEA stated in a FAQ regarding HB 8. “In addition, an adaptive test design allows assessments to be administered more quickly with fewer questions needed to achieve accurate results, thus saving instructional time for students and teachers.”

The assessments are designed to minimize the impact on student instructional time with the state estimating the BOY and MOY assessments to take 60 minutes for students in grades 3 and 4 and 75 minutes for students in grades 5-8. 

The state is estimating the EOY assessments to be completed in 90 minutes for students in grades 3 and 4 and 105 minutes for students in grades 5-8.

School districts will administer BOY assessments between the fourth Monday in August and Sept. 30, MOY assessments between Jan. 2 and Feb. 21 and EOY between May 1 and May 30. In April, school districts will administer the writing section of the reading language arts assessment. 

Students with significant cognitive disabilities will be required to be assessed with EOY assessments in the same grades and subject courses but will not participate in the BOY or MOY assessments.

TEA will continue to offer paper, including braille versions, of BOY, MOY and EOY assessments for students who require paper materials.

Some other changes with HB 8 that will impact the 2025-2026 school year in December include test anxiety mitigation through updated directions for students and test administrators and updated requirements for districts to provide parents and guardians access to the Texas Assessment Family Portal though a local portal and notify them each time results of state assessments are available.

TEA is also working to provide parents and guardians with better access to their student’s state assessment results in the Texas Assessment Family Portal and is updating the login screen.