STAAR helps to ensure that Texas students are competitive with other students both nationally and internationally. Another important function of STAAR is gauging how well schools and teachers prepare their students academically. In addition, STAAR also fulfills the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which requires that all students be assessed annually in mathematics and reading language arts (RLA) in grades 3–8 and at least once in high school, as well as in science at least once each in elementary, middle, and high school.
STAAR includes:
grades 3–8 mathematics,
grades 3–8 RLA,
grades 5 and 8 science,
grade 8 social studies,
end-of-course (EOC) assessments for:
Algebra I,
English I,
English II,
Biology, and
U.S. History, and
Spanish assessments for:
grades 3–5 mathematics,
grades 3–5 RLA, and
grade 5 science.
STAAR grades 3–8 assessments are administered once a year, in the spring, and retest opportunities are not offered. All five STAAR EOC assessments required for graduation—Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology, and U.S. History—are administered at the end of the fall semester, at the end of the spring semester, and in the summer, providing eligible students three testing opportunities each year.
For more information about STAAR, refer to the STAAR Resources webpage.