05/13/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/13/2025 19:08
The Texas House passed HB 4 by Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado) on May 13th with a nearly-unanimous 143-1 vote. The bill would enact major reforms to state testing and the way school districts and campuses are assessed with the A-F accountability system.
Parents, students, teachers, and administrators have long complained about the outsized influence standardized testing has on public education; students stress about entire days consumed by testing, parents absorb the stress of their children, teachers responsible for tested subjects face significant pressure to increase test scores by any means necessary, and administrators must develop plans to turn around campuses that fail to meet the mark. In debating HB 4 on the floor, state representatives recalled the volume of calls they received regarding potentially scrapping the STAAR test and almost all the callers were supportive of doing so.
HB 4 would replace a single, summative test with three test taken at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. In laying out the bill on the House floor, Buckley said that these tests are intended to take between 60 to 90 minutes, with the longer tests reserved for older students. Additionally, the school campuses would not be expected to "shut down" for secure testing protocols, so the tests could take place during a somewhat ordinary school day. The new assessments are intended to provide check-ins for parents to get a clearer picture of where their children are at during the school year and for teachers to plan instruction to better meet the needs of their students. Unlike the STAAR test which is a criterion-referenced exam, meaning that students are assessed based on whether they met a certain standard or nor, the new through-year tests would be norm-referenced, meaning that students are assessed based on how they performed relative to other students.
In the wake of yearslong lawsuits over the release of A-F accountability system scores during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, HB 4 also revises how scores are assigned to school districts and their campuses, slightly shifting weight away from tests and onto other indicators of student outcomes such as industry certifications, military readiness, and even kindergarten readiness for elementary schools that offer prekindergarten. The bill would also provide more notice for school districts if accountability rules change and any significant changes that TEA contemplates would have to be approved by the Legislature before adoption.
HB 4 has positioned itself to be a seismic shift in school testing and accountability, but with just over two weeks left in the session, the bill has a long way to go in the Senate, whose own accountability measure, SB 1962 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), has yet to receive a hearing in the House. With key differences in the bill, a lot will need to be reconciled to arrive at a final version to send to the Governor.