Promotion from 5th, 8th grades won’t be tied to STAAR tests in 2020-21, but state’s A-F school grades will

Texas will alter some of the high-stakes nature of its standardized tests, but those tests will still be given to public school students next year, with grades still tied to schools and districts in part based on student testing performance, according to an announcement by Gov. Greg Abbott.

A news release from Abbott on Monday declared that promotion requirements for fifth- and eighth-grade students tied to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, would be waived for the upcoming school year.

STAAR tests in reading and math essentially serve as exit exams in those grades, although students can still move along to the next grade if promoted by a school committee.

According to 2018-19 data from the Texas Education Agency, 97% of fifth graders who failed to pass the reading or math tests were still promoted by committees; percentages of promotions for “non-proficient” eighth graders were even higher: 98% in math, 99% in reading. In Dallas ISD, for example, 132 were retained in total from those two grades.

Abbott said in the news release that the 2020-21 school year would be “uniquely challenging” because of COVID-19, prompting the change.

“By waiving these promotion requirements, we are providing greater flexibility for students and teachers, while at the same time ensuring that Texas students continue to receive a great education — which we will continue to measure with high quality assessments,” Abbott said.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said that because the tests would be only administered once, “there is no benefit to our children by requiring them to repeat a year based on a single test score given the disruptions of COVID.”

STAAR tests in fifth- and eighth-grade reading and math are normally given in April, allowing for two retesting periods in May and June for students who missed or failed the tests. The news release said that the single administration of those exams will be pushed back to May.

But also nestled in that announcement were answers to how the state — at this point — plans to proceed with the rest of its testing process, including its A-F accountability system.

The A-F system, which grades schools and districts via a complicated formula based primarily on the STAAR tests, would still be used for the upcoming school year, “albeit with certain adjustments due to COVID-19,” the news release said.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a longtime proponent of A-F, said in the news release that the tweaked ratings would provide the state “important information about school performance and, while we won’t use the STAAR test to determine promotions, it will continue to provide us with assessment data that we need.”

Advocates and some lawmakers have been asking Abbott and Morath for a variety of changes surrounding the STAAR, from canceling testing altogether for the upcoming school year, to uncoupling the tests from its high-stakes components, such as grade advancement, school grades and teacher evaluations.

Texas State Teachers Association president Ovidia Molina said Monday that Abbott’s announcement didn’t “go far enough.”

“STAAR testing will still be wasteful and stressful at a time when teachers, students and their parents are stressed out enough over a deadly pandemic,” Molina said in a statement. “The governor needs to also suspend the A-F school accountability system and the T-TESS teacher appraisal system for the coming school year. They also are heavily tied to STAAR scores. And while he is at it, he should just suspend STAAR testing for 2020-21, period. It is a distraction that students and teachers don’t need while they learn a new education delivery system, and it is an expense that taxpayers can ill-afford.”

And, while fifth and eighth graders won’t be affected, Abbott’s news release did not address the five end-of-course exams tied to high school graduation requirements.

Theresa Trevino, the vice president of the grassroots organization Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment, said her group hopes that Abbott would consider waiving those end-of-course requirements — and, furthermore, waive STAAR for 2020-21.

“Texas faces a huge budget shortfall and waiving the STAAR passing requirements would save the state $93 million in needed funds that could be allocated to aiding schools in remaining safe environments for learning during this COVID-19 pandemic,” Trevino said.