Reforming standardized testing in Texas: a break down of House Bill 221
ECTOR COUNTY, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – Ahead of the 2025 legislative session, State Representative Brooks Landgraf introduced House Bill 221, which proposed significant reforms to standardized testing in Texas schools.
'House Bill 221 is the bill that I filed in the Texas House of Representatives to scrap the STAAR exam,' Landgraf said. 'It's an unnecessary, overly expensive, high stakes standardized test that's not serving Texas students very well, or taxpayers.'
Educators at Ector County ISD said they rely on STAAR data to assess what their students have learned.
'The assessment is made and designed to assess whether students learned the TEKS, which is the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, and just to see their academic performance year-over-year,' said Dr. Robert Trejo, the Executive Director of Accountability and School Improvement at ECISD. 'And, to inform educators what they can focus in in the classroom, year in and year out.'
While the STAAR does provide ECISD with data, it does not provide the district with funding.
'Our funding is based off of attendance or ADA – attendance or percentage of students attending our campuses,' said Trejo. 'So, STAAR performance has no yield as far as the funding that we receive from the state.'
Rep. Landgraf said other states offer better ways of conducting standardized testing.
'No other state uses STAAR, but there are some very successful models that are used in 27 other states. One being the Iowa Assessments, which are much more accurate than STAAR,' Landgraf said. 'They are more cost effective, and that's why they're used with such great success in many other parts of the country. Normally, I think we do everything better here in Texas, but standardized testing is one area where other states get it right and we don't.'
Rep. Landgraf also stated that the STAAR can be a major cause of anxiety in students and teachers.
'It's anxiety not only for the students, but for teachers and parents too,' said Landgraf. 'We put so much pressure on how students as young as third grade perform on this exam…We're not taking the entire education of our students into consideration.'
Educators at ECISD said that no matter what happens to the STAAR, they are still going to be dedicated to providing the best opportunities to their students.
'…We would look at what assessment is coming out of that, what instrument is coming out of that, and then we still do what we do as educators,' Trejo said. 'And that's dissect the data, and then intervene for students and provide them the best educational opportunities and ensure that they're learning.'
Landgraf said House Bill 221 could pass before Memorial Day this spring. The bill would take about a year to implement once passed.
'I think this is also going to be an important part of the debate that is going on right now in the state of Texas with regards to Education Savings Accounts,' said Landgraf. 'Governor Abbott has made ESA's and some other education issues emergency items for the legislative session that we're in right now. So, there is a lot of focus on these issues. I think we can include this as part of the larger discussion of education reforms here in Texas.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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