New data revealed by the Texas Education Agency shows that less than half of the state’s public school students scored at grade level or above on their STAAR exams, raising concerns among educators and parents.
The full report of scores clocked on the 2022-2023 STAAR exam by Texas students in grades 3 and up was released last week as part of the Texas Performance Reporting System.
The results show that most Texas students could not meet their grade level across all subjects last school year. Only 49% of students scored at grade level or above, and a mere 20% demonstrated mastery of all school subjects, a decline from 23% the previous year.
The overall subject-specific achievement levels in reading and science remained steady, with lackluster shares of 53% and 47% of students scoring at level or above, respectively. The shares of students scoring at grade level in social sciences and math bumped slightly year over year, rising from 50 to 52% in the former and 42 to 45% in the latter.
The STAAR exam, a standardized test aimed at measuring how well a student has learned and can apply the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for each grade, subject, and course, has been subject to some scrutiny and was targeted by some state legislators in 2019. This led to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) revealing an updated version of the exam earlier this year to align it better with the realities of the modern classroom.
Some stakeholders claim that the new STAAR exam scores suggest that Texas students are not receiving a high-quality education.
“Last year’s STAAR scores serve as proof that parents have been right,” said Tara Petsch of Fredericksburg, a parent and the Texas ambassador for Moms For Liberty, according to the Texas Scorecard. “The failing scores explain why some parents want school choice legislation. No matter how one feels about education savings accounts, Texas parents have real, legitimate concerns with the education their children are getting.”
Overall, lackluster STAAR exam results have given momentum to the campaign for school choice. For some years now, families have been pulling their children out of traditional public schools in search of alternatives like charters, private schools, and homeschooling. This has contributed to declining public school enrollment across North Texas, especially at Dallas ISD and Fort Worth ISD — two districts with woeful student achievement scores.
At Dallas ISD, where stakeholders often cite mismanagement as a primary reason for its academic troubles, only 41% of students scored at grade level or above on the 2021-2022 STAAR exam. The following year’s exam scores bumped up slightly across all subjects to 44%. Nonetheless, only 22% of seventh graders scored at grade level in math, well below the statewide average of 37%.
As previously covered by The Dallas Express, accountability scores for the 2022-2023 school year continue to be tied up in litigation after roughly 100 school districts filed a lawsuit against TEA’s new formula for calculating performance grades.