Staff Report
Texas high school students will no longer be required to take 15 end-of-course STAAR tests, thanks to Gov. Rick Perry who formally signed HB 5 by Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock (R-Killeen). The bill reduces the number of required tests to five. It also creates new options for meeting graduation requirements, with emphasis on career interests.
HB 5 addresses excessive testing and time devoted to testing in high school. It also limits state end-of-course tests to Algebra I, Biology, English I, English II, and U.S. History. The English I and English II tests will assess both reading and writing. Under the new bill, districts have the option to administer post-secondary readiness tests for diagnostic purposes in Algebra II and English III, but passing those exams is not required for graduation, nor will the exams count in state accountability ratings.
The also bill removes the requirement that a student’s performance on end-of-course exams must count for 15 percent of the student’s final grade in each course tested.
The state accountability system under HB 5 will use a new A-to-F grading system for school districts but will retain the existing ratings of exemplary, recognized, academically acceptable, and academically unacceptable for campuses. HB 5 somewhat counterbalances the simplistic use of the A-to-F labels for districts by adding new accountability ratings for community and student engagement and for financial performance. Ratings in these two new categories will be reported alongside academic ratings, and the academic ratings must use indicators based on other factors in addition to standardized state assessments. However, the extent of reliance on standardized state tests still is left up to the commissioner of education, and Commissioner Michael Williams already has come out with a new set of academic-performance measures that rely chiefly on state test scores to gauge proficiency, growth, college and career readiness and the closing of achievement gaps.
In addition, under an amendment to HB 5 by Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio), no more than two district-required benchmark tests can be administered to prepare a student for the corresponding state achievement test.
