Texas House Votes To Ease STAAR Testing Stress For Students

AUSTIN, Texas- The end-of-year STAAR exams that stressed students to tears might get the boot after the Texas House nearly unanimously voted for a bill to replace the dreaded standardized test with shorter tests throughout the school year.

The Texas Education Agency uses STAAR test results to evaluate and grade schools based on student performance, which has caused controversy among those who don't think the scores accurately reflect the quality of a child's education, nor do they believe the tests cover all of the material children should learn or have learned throughout the year.

Many educators are fed up with "teaching the test" and worrying about what will and won't be on it. They also understand that some students deal with major anxiety and nerves when it comes to test-taking. Some students are better under pressure than others. Test scores don't always mean a child has failed to learn the necessary material or that a teacher has failed to teach it. There could be more to the story.

If House Bill 4 passes, the STAAR test will be broken up into three tests: one at the beginning of the year, one in the middle, and one at the end of the year.

As someone who grew up taking the STAAR test, I hope the bill passes.

The pressure to do well on the STAAR test was excruciating. You could see how worried the teachers were about it, and they weren't even the ones taking it. Their lack of confidence made it even scarier for me as a kid. I struggled through every single test, and even had to retake one of them in my senior year.

I ended up graduating from college with a 4.0. Something doesn't add up.

Fingers crossed it gets split up into three smaller tests. That's a much less daunting task.

If your child happens to fail the STAAR test, click here to find out what to do.