{"id":331813,"date":"2026-06-11T06:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T06:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/331813\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T06:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T06:57:14","slug":"texas-high-schoolers-show-gains-on-staar-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/331813\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas high schoolers show gains on STAAR tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas high school students made gains in every subject from algebra to U.S. history, according to results from state tests released Wednesday, a sign of recovery amid years-long efforts to make up for pandemic-related learning disruptions.<\/p>\n

The STAAR end-of-course exams tested students in algebra I, biology, English I, English II and U.S. history this spring \u2013 and measured whether they are ready for college, a career or the military.<\/p>\n

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath credited the gains to \u201cfocused instruction and high expectations.\u201d He added it could be a positive effect of a new state ban on cell phone use <\/a>among older students.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are better able to stay focused on their schoolwork while at school,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The partial release of STAAR results showed about 54% of students who tested in algebra I had the skills appropriate for their grade level, up from 47% last year. That\u2019s still below the 62% recorded in 2019 as students continue to try to recover from learning loss during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, biology saw one of the biggest single-year gains, with a 9 percentage-point increase from the previous year. At 71% of students demonstrating they have grade-level biology skills this spring, Texas has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The jumps in math and science will translate to fewer students in college remedial math classes and more students ready for critical careers such as nursing, said Mary Lynn Pruneda, the director of education and workforce policy at Texas 2036. Still, Pruneda said the state needs to get more students on grade-level with math skills, by investing in strong teaching materials and encouraging students who are struggling to get extra tutoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pandemic had a particularly devastating impact on math because those lessons build on each other, Pruneda said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you miss the week of instruction on fractions, you\u2019re not going to continue,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do some serious reflection as a state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Performance in English saw smaller wins. The share of students meeting grade level rose from 51% to 55% in English I and from 56% to 60% in English II.<\/p>\n

Among English language learners, students with disabilities and children from low-income families, the percentage of those meeting grade level also increased in every end-of-course test subject area.<\/p>\n

Test results are a large part of the state\u2019s academic accountability system. Districts that persistently fail those standards risk being taken over by the state with the commissioner replacing their local leadership.<\/p>\n

Three years under state control, Houston ISD<\/a> surpassed Texas\u2019 overall performance in algebra, biology and U.S. history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other districts recently under a takeover \u2014 including Fort Worth<\/a>, Beaumont<\/a>, Lake Worth<\/a> and Connally<\/a> \u2014 saw gains but still lagged behind state performance across subject areas. The exception was Connally ISD\u2019s results in biology, which at 75% exceeded the state rate by 4 percentage points.<\/p>\n

Students must pass the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness\u2019 end-of-course tests to graduate from a Texas high school. Some middle schoolers taking the upper-level classes must also take the end-of-course exams.<\/p>\n

As part of a phasing out of STAAR, students will no longer take the English II end-of-year test starting in the 2027-28 school year. State lawmakers overhauled Texas\u2019 exams as a response to widespread complaints from teachers and families about over testing.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story and will be updated frequently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7395,5157,27,48077,2810,29,28,11362,6748],"class_list":["post-331813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-mike-morath","tag-staar-test","tag-texas","tag-texas-education","tag-texas-education-agency","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-public-schools","tag-well-b-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331813","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=331813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}