House narrowly concurs on overhaul of Texas school testing and accountability (HB 8)

The Texas House on Aug. 31 voted to concur with Senate amendments to House Bill 8, a comprehensive rewrite of the state’s student assessment and accountability system that moves the state from a single end‑of‑year, high‑stakes test toward beginning‑, middle‑ and end‑of‑year checks and a new three‑year growth indicator.

“House Bill 8 ends the high stakes and high stress nature of one test one day,” Representative Buckley said while explaining the Senate changes. He described new guardrails that require TEA to report to the Legislature before major changes are implemented and said the bill preserves a year‑over‑year growth measure while creating a separate three‑year indicator to be reviewed before it affects A–F ratings.

The bill requires shorter, standards‑aligned assessments administered at the beginning, middle and end of the school year, requires TEA to publish an accountability manual by July 15 ahead of a school year, and restores automatic rescoring for certain written responses, supporters said. It also reinserts some social‑studies end‑of‑course exams but removes English II as a required EOC.

“House Bill 8 expands the STAAR test. Somehow, we got to a place where we grew the STAAR test exponentially,” Representative Hinojosa said in opposition, arguing the measure would increase state‑required testing and that many local superintendents had not seen certain Senate changes. Hinojosa said a provision the Senate added removed language requiring that through‑year growth be incorporated into A–F indicators.

Supporters, including Representative Schoolcraft, said the measure replaces privately administered benchmark systems and MAP tests with a statewide, TEKS‑aligned system that would reduce duplicative testing and lower costs. “We have a massive testing regimen today that the new system will be replacing,” Schoolcraft said, citing district costs for multiple benchmark contracts.

Representative Buckley and other supporters stressed reporting and a staged implementation: TEA must report on test development in 2027 and on the three‑year growth measure by March 15, 2029, with a statutory “fail‑safe” that would keep current growth calculations if the new indicator demonstrably harms districts’ A–F ratings.

The House debate included repeated questions about whether the beginning‑ and middle‑of‑year checks would themselves affect A–F results. Buckley and other backers said those interim checks are instructionally supportive and that any three‑year growth indicator’s inclusion in A–F would be phased in only after legislative review. Opponents remained skeptical and said parents and some local trustees lacked adequate time to evaluate the final text.

Representative Buckley moved to concur with the Senate amendments. The motion passed on a recorded vote, 79‑47.

The House and Senate versions were reconciled by the language the members adopted; the enacted text now requires TEA reporting and other implementation deadlines supporters say will increase transparency and reduce abrupt changes to the accountability system.