Texas Lawmakers Fail To End The STAAR Test

It seems like everyone in Texas is in agreement that the STAAR test needs to go. It's been criticized by parents, teachers, students, and lawmakers alike. But a bill to end the STAAR test died in the final days of the legislative session.

Bill To Replace The STAAR Test Dies

House Bill 4 would have replaced the STAAR test, also known as the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, with three shorter tests that would have been given throughout the school year.

Lawmakers agreed in the Texas House and Senate that STAAR needs to go, but they couldn't agree on the new testing method and how to hand out grades to schools for the A-F ratings system.

According to the Texas Tribune, lawmakers in the Texas Senate wanted to "solidify the Texas Education Agency commissioner's authority to set stricter standards for the ratings system". The House version would required TEA to get approval from the Texas Legislature in order to make changes to the school ratings.

The Texas Tribune also reported that the House and Senate disagreed over having a mandatory social studies test. The House wanted less testing.

Lawmakers Can Try Again In A Couple of Years

State lawmakers were close in their negotiations it seems to get rid of STAAR, but now that the session is over, they will have to try again in the 90th Texas Legislative Session in two years.

According to the Texas Tribune, the Texas State Teachers Association preferred the House version of the bill to the Senate version.