The Senate passed SB 8, a comprehensive rewrite of school accountability that replaces the current single end-of-year STAAR test with a three-assessment model and codifies annual release of AF accountability ratings.

"What gets measured gets fixed," sponsor Senator Bettencourt told the Senate when she explained the bill's aim to create diagnostic assessments that inform instruction and free up classroom time that is currently devoted to preparing for the single end-of-year exam. The bill calls for a short, adaptive beginning-of-year assessment, an adaptive mid-year assessment that returns results within 48 hours for classroom use, and an end-of-year criterion-referenced assessment aligned to Texas standards.

SB 8 also creates an accountability "refresh" process every five years that allows the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to update standards or indicators with advance notice, requires TEA to publish models showing how districts and campuses would perform under any new standard, and establishes a grant panel to support locally developed accountability measures that reflect unique district needs.

Floor action and amendments
Senator Bettencourt brought technical amendments on the floor to correct retroactive standard-adoption dates and to remove a House-added provision that would have directed the commissioner to seek federal waivers for special-education accountability; the removal was requested by disability-rights advocates in committee testimony and accepted on the floor. The Senate adopted the committee substitute and passed the bill to engrossment and final passage; the Secretary recorded the final tally reported by the floor as 22 ayes, 6 nays, 2 absent.

Why it matters
Teachers and parents on the record in committee urged moving away from a high-stakes, single end-of-year test toward diagnostics that measure growth and provide rapid feedback so teachers can remediate in real time. On the floor Bettencourt and supporters said the new approach would reduce the instruction-time loss that accompanies end-of-year STAAR administration and would provide teachers with item-level information useful for classroom diagnostics.

Next steps
SB 8 proceeds to the House for consideration of Senate changes. Sponsors said they expect additional technical refinement as the bill moves through the legislative process.

Vote and procedural history
The bill was taken up under suspension, several technical floor amendments were adopted, and final passage was recorded in the Senate journal as 22 ayes, 6 nays, 2 absent.