Bill reducing STAAR testing passes House

HB 764 by Rep. Matt Krause passed the House Saturday on a vote of 136-6. The bill addresses several testing issues, including reducing required STAAR tests to only those required by federal law.

If the bill survives the Senate and becomes law, it would eliminate the assessment of writing in 4th and 7th grade as well as the 8th grade social studies STAAR exam. It would also eliminate current end-of-course exams and would allow districts to select one or more nationally recognized assessments such as the SAT or ACT by which to assess secondary students in English language arts, math, and science.

The bill would allow the parent of a student with significant cognitive disabilities to request that the student be exempted from the alternative assessment, and the student's ARD committee would determine if the student should be exempted. If exempted, the student must be assessed in the applicable subject via another alternative assessment developed by the commissioner in conjunction with stakeholders.