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Texas high school students’ STAAR results have mostly eclipsed pre-pandemic levels, a sign of growth celebrated by state education officials.
The Texas Education Agency on Friday released statewide results for end-of-course exams, which showed students making progress in all five tested subjects.
In Biology, English I, English II and U.S. History, pass rates exceeded those in 2019 — the last year before COVID-19 upended students’ high school experiences. Algebra I scores remain below 2019 levels but still improved over last year.
“We celebrate these results, and also recognize they provide objective information for parents and educators for the year to come,” education commissioner Mike Morath said in a statement.
The State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, tests are a measure of students’ academic performance. End-of-course tests typically are needed for Texas high schoolers to graduate. To pass the tests, students must score at a level that approaches grade-level.
This latest round marked the first year that redesigned tests were administered almost exclusively online, with some exceptions for students requiring accommodations.
The state has not yet released scores for elementary and middle schoolers; those will come Aug. 16.
These scores will not only be used to help families assess how their child is doing academically, but will be a major factor in how well schools and districts score in the state’s school accountability system. Schools’ grades on the A-F scale will be released in September.
High school scores
Amid widespread learning loss for students following school closures, math scores proved to be particularly hard-hit.
In Algebra I, 78% of test takers passed, falling six percentage points below the 2019 threshold. Less than a quarter of students mastered the skills on the test and 45% met grade-level standards.
But Texas saw better news in Biology: Students had the largest year-over-year gain in this category. The seven percentage-point gain brought 89% of students to passing.
Just over seven in 10 students passed the English I test, while 74% passed in English II. But English also saw the lowest percentages of students excelling on the test; 14% scored as “masters” in English I, while 9% did so in English II.
The highest success rate came in U.S. History, with 95% passing, up from 89% last year.
In Dallas, passing rates were generally below the statewide average. Dallas ISD serves a larger percentage of students from low-income families — and children who are learning English — than Texas as a whole.
Like the rest of the state, DISD students struggled most to pass their English exams: 59% passed the English I test, while 63% passed English II.
Dallas high schoolers saw more success in Biology, where 83% passed, and history, where 92% did so.
Gaps remain
The STAAR scores continue to show gaps between high schoolers from different student groups.
For example, 36% of students from low-income families met grade level in Algebra I, compared to 61% of teenagers from wealthier families. Only 14% of students in special education did so.
Emergent bilingual students saw a 5 percentage-point increase in grade-level proficiency on their English tests, moving from 21% to 26%.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
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