Texas Legislature passes landmark student assessment reform

The Texas Legislature passed House Bill 8, sending the landmark legislation to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature. The bill, authored by state Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, and sponsored in the Senate by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, received statewide support, with more than 60 coauthors and cosponsors across both chambers.

HB 8 represents the most significant reform to student testing and school accountability in a generation. The bill replaces STAAR with shorter assessments spread throughout the year, reduces overall testing time in classrooms, and ensures parents and teachers get results they can use within days.

What HB 8 Delivers for Texans

No More STAAR (2027–28): STAAR is repealed and replaced with a smarter system that reduces overall testing.

Shorter, Smarter Assessments: Adaptive, through-year tests reduce stress while giving a clearer picture of student progress.

Significant Teacher Engagement: New tests would be developed in partnership with Texas teachers, who will be able to vet each question on the end-of-year exam.

Real-Time Feedback: Parents and teachers will receive results within 48 hours to better support student learning.

More Time for Instruction: Limits excessive benchmark testing, returning up to 15–30 classroom hours per student.

Predictable School Ratings: A–F accountability ratings will be released on time every year, ending delays caused by litigation.

Fair and Transparent Rules: Performance standards and accountability manuals must be published at least two years in advance, ensuring stability for schools.

Cross-Agency Coordination: Aligns K–12, higher education, and workforce credentials to meet Texas’ growing economic needs.

Legislative Oversight: Directs the Texas Education Agency to provide updates to lawmakers before implementing the new tests in the 2027-2028 school year.

Broad Support Across Texas

The bill is drawing praise from business, education and community leaders across the state.

“With HB 8, Texas families will finally have an assessment system that puts students first. Parents will receive faster, clearer results they can trust, and teachers will gain timely tools to support learning in the classroom. This bill ends the cycle of overtesting, and replaces it with transparency, fairness, and real accountability that helps every child succeed.”
— Mary Lynn Pruneda, Director of Education and Workforce Policy, Texas 2036

“Accountability is fundamentally about fairness. It is about ensuring that every child — regardless of race, income, language, or ZIP code — has access to the same high expectations, rigorous instruction, and meaningful opportunities to succeed. When schools are not held accountable, inequities flourish, and students from historically marginalized groups are disproportionately affected. HB 8 takes crucial, meaningful steps in improving and innovating our state’s accountability system, demanding that it do more for our educators, students, families, and communities.”
— Garry Jones, Texas Executive Director/Co-Founder, Center for Strong Public Schools

“Houston’s global competitiveness depends on the strength of our workforce. HB 8 is an important step toward ensuring Texas students graduate with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in a dynamic economy. By providing clear, timely evaluations that support instruction and accelerate student growth, this legislation strengthens the talent pipelines that fuel innovation, attract investment, and secure the long-term prosperity of the Houston region and our state.”
— Taylor Landin, Chief Policy Officer, Greater Houston Partnership

“By focusing on growth, reducing test stress, and restoring instructional time, HB 8 moves Texas closer to an accountability system that truly supports high-quality teaching and learning. The timely data coming out of the new system will serve as an invaluable resource for both teachers and parents, enabling earlier interventions and more responsive instruction.”
— Dr. Hjamil A. Martínez-Vázquez, Texas Policy Program Manager, Teach Plus Texas

“Strong assessment and accountability systems are an essential foundation for ensuring all students are held to high standards and have equitable opportunities to meet them. With quality implementation, the version of HB 8 passed by the Senate will help ensure Texas remains a national leader with innovations to assessments designed to provide parents and educators with more timely, actionable information while preserving honest results essential to close achievement gaps and ensure all students meet their full potential.”
— Nicholas Munyan-Penney, Assistant Director of P12 Policy, EdTrust

“Strong assessment and accountability systems are essential to empowering families to demand school improvement and meaningful results for kids. We applaud Texas lawmakers for continuing to be transparent and hold schools and districts responsible for ensuring every child has access to an excellent and equitable education.”
— Ariel Taylor Smith, Senior Director of Policy and Action, National Parents Union

“HB 8 represents more than a set of technical reforms — our legislators have voted and passed a law to set in place statewide assessment to support instruction in our public schools, and improve transparency and accountability within our public education system. Let us give our educators the clarity they need, our students the tools they deserve, and our communities the confidence that our school system is working for every child. Now is the time to act with purpose and unity, ensuring that our public education system reflects the values we hold in high regard.”
— Richard Tagle, President and Executive Director, E3 Alliance

“Businesses throughout the Dallas region rely on academic assessments and accountability ratings to evaluate the health of our talent pipeline and inform decisions about corporate relocations and expansions. By modernizing Texas’ approach to academic assessments, HB 8 will deliver clear data about educational outcomes to employers and working parents while maintaining rigorous standards for public schools.”
— Jarrad Toussant, Senior Vice President, Dallas Regional Chamber

“HB 8 is a meaningful step forward in delivering more timely, actionable information to schools and families — empowering them to tailor instruction and provide targeted support when it matters most. This legislation increases transparency in how our state assessments are developed, helping to build trust in the system and ensure it serves the needs of both educators and students. It also promises to maintain and build upon our state’s commitment to rigorous academic standards for all Texas students.”
— Bridget Worley, Chief State Impact Officer, The Commit Partnership

“For Texas students, HB 8 offers the promise of a more personalized learning experience by strengthening assessment and accountability as a tool to guide instruction. These reforms ground testing in educator feedback, deliver actionable data throughout the year to tailor learning, and return more time to classrooms.”
— Cary Wright, CEO, Good Reason Houston

“HB 8 ensures Texas has a consistent, transparent accountability system that is vital for building a globally competitive workforce. Employers rely on this information to guide investment decisions and maximize talent, while schools and policymakers use it to drive continuous improvement. This bill strengthens public trust and keeps Texas competitive.”
— Justin Yancy, President, Texas Business Leadership Council

Thanking Bill Authors and Champions

The coalition thanks state Rep. Brad Buckley, state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, and the co-authors in the House and Senate for their leadership in advancing HB 8 and their commitment to Texas students, parents and educators.

To learn more about what the bill does, visit https://texas2036.org/assessments/.