Texas 2036 applauds passage of House Bill 8, which introduces more tailored assessments with faster feedback to parents and teachers and yearly release of accountability ratings for schools.
Austin, Texas — Today, the Texas House of Representatives passed legislation to improve student testing and ensure predictability in school accountability. The bill refines how students are assessed academically and responds to calls to reduce stress, minimize overall testing time and provide more timely results.
House Bill 8 by state Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, affirms the state’s commitment to an assessment system that measures students’ performance against grade-level standards.
The legislation also takes steps to curb overtesting by banning district-administered benchmark assessments, returning an estimated 15 to 30 hours to classroom instruction per student. Chairman Buckley said during today’s floor debate that lawmakers discovered that some school districts were administering as many as 16 benchmark assessments in addition to state-required tests per subject and grade.
“With HB 8, the state has taken a decisive step toward giving parents test results they can trust. Test results will be delivered to parents more quickly and with less stress for their children,” said Mary Lynn Pruneda, Director for Education and Workforce Policy at Texas 2036.
Pruneda added, “House Bill 8 creates an assessment system that tells us how students perform against grade-level standards while providing instructional support throughout the year. This will let us know how our education system is doing and supports our students on their path to success.”
Both bills also contain provisions to ensure the yearly release of school A-F accountability scores. Due to litigation initiated by roughly 100 school districts, A-F scores for districts and campuses for the 2023 and 2024 were not publicly available until this year. The 2024 scores were not released until earlier this month when they were made publicly available at the same as the scores for the 2025 school year.
“Thanks to HB 8, Texas parents, schoolchildren and community leaders will no longer have to wait years before knowing how well their neighborhood schools are doing to prepare students for success,” Pruneda said.
HB 8 now heads to the Senate for consideration there. The last day of the 2nd called session of the 89th Legislature is Sept. 13, unless lawmakers adjourn sooner.
