<\/p>\n
Testing is serious business for students, such as those taking the STAAR at East View High School in Georgetown in 2013.<\/p>\n
Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Texas high school students\u2019 performance on state tests improved this year locally and statewide across nearly every subject, according to end-of-course assessment results released Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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After years of spotty post-pandemic results<\/a>, education analysts heralded the scores as positive news.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Austin Independent School District students\u2019 performance dramatically improved on Algebra I tests to 78% of students passing, up from 69% last year. There were gains across all subject areas. Students in both Austin\u00a0ISD and the Central Texas region performed largely on par with state averages.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite improvement across the board for Texas low-income students,<\/a> both the region and Austin ISD continue to lag behind the state in educating those students in Algebra I and English literature exams.\u00a0<\/p>\n The results represent students\u2019 performance on required high school-level State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, tests. The scores released Wednesday reflect results for mandated end-of-course exams, which students complete after taking five high school\u2013level classes. While most of the students taking these tests are in high school, some middle school students taking advanced coursework also take the tests.<\/p>\n Students are required to pass the end-of-course exams to graduate, although there are some exceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThese results reflect the hard work of Texas students, educators and families and demonstrate that focused instruction and high expectations continue to produce positive outcomes for students across our state,\u201d Commissioner Mike Morath<\/a> said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Morath also speculated that the state\u2019s 2025 ban on cell phones in schools could be helping students focus while in class.\u00a0<\/p>\n Austin ISD results<\/p>\n In Austin\u00a0ISD, 78% of students passed the Algebra I test, a leap from last year\u2019s 69%. Students don\u2019t need to meet grade level standards to pass the STAAR test. Passing rates reflect students who \u201capproach\u201d grade level.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n On English tests,\u00a068% of Austin ISD students passed both the English I and English II tests, reflecting jumps from 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n When comparing all students, Austin ISD largely performed on par with students across the state. But\u00a0low-income, Hispanic and Black students in Austin ISD performed far lower than their district peers and lower than similar students across Texas in math and reading.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Austin ISD made notable progress this year narrowing the performance gap between its general population and high-needs students, including those who are low-income.\u00a0<\/p>\n About 64% of Austin ISD low-income students passed Algebra I, compared to 53% in 2025, and 47% passed the English I test, compared to 42% last year. Students performed slightly better on the English II test.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Statewide, 77% of low-income students passed Algebra 1 and 63% passed English I.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Smithville school district\u00a0concluded an assessment on\u00a0its academic needs and shortcomings, and crafted a plan to improve operations as well as student scores on the STAAR test.<\/p>\n American-Statesman file<\/p>\n Positive results statewide<\/p>\n The gains, especially in biology, are good news for Texas children, said Mary Lynn Pruneda, director of education and workforce policy for the nonpartisan think tank Texas 2036.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n About 93% of Texas students passed the biology test, compared to 91% last year. \u201cAll that means that more kids are going to be academically prepared,\u201d Pruneda said. \u201cThe more kids that are academically prepared, the more kids are going to be prepared for career, the more kids that are prepared for college.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Pruneda attributed the results to state investments in community college programs, which often partner with high schools, and career and technical programming.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has never been more important in the past 100 years for kids to read and do math on grade level and to graduate high school ready for life,\u201d Pruneda said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t do these things, they\u2019re going to face systemic and structural barriers that no other generation has faced.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Takeover threat in Austin ISD<\/p>\n The state\u2019s release of STAAR results comes at a key time for Austin ISD.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The district is facing the possibility of a state takeover, a drastic intervention in which the state removes elected trustees from power<\/a> and installs appointed managers to run the district. TEA takeovers often result in the removal of the existing superintendent, as well.<\/p>\n Morath can make this dramatic move if any school in a district fails to meet state standards for five years in a row. Campuses are scored each year on an\u00a0A-F scale based largely on the STAAR results, although middle and high school letter grades also factor in college and career readiness.\u00a0<\/p>\n Three Austin ISD middle schools\u00a0\u2014 Dobie, Burnet and Webb\u00a0\u2014 have received four consecutive F ratings. The state will release scores for third- through eighth-graders\u2019 tests next Tuesday, foreshadowing how those campuses may perform on state letter grades.\u00a0<\/p>\n The STAAR test has undergone significant changes recently, with more to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In 2023, students started taking the exam entirely on a computer. The test also includes more open-ended, short response questions and places a greater emphasis on writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, lawmakers voted to replace the STAAR test with three shorter assessments at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. This change will go into effect in the 2027-28 school year. Families can view their child\u2019s individual scores at TexasAssessment.gov.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Testing is serious business for students, such as those taking the STAAR at East View High School in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-330921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n