At the end of the spring semester, freshmen will be the first students to take the new STAAR  (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) end-of-course  exams.

“The test was developed by the Texas Education Agency, in collaboration with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and Texas educators with a focus on increasing post-secondary readiness of graduating high school students,” assessment coordinator Lisa Coats said.

The STAAR tests will replace TAKS testing as the exit-level testing program and will count as 15 percent of each student’s year-end grade for each course for which a STAAR test is required. The STAAR tests are more difficult than TAKS, and students must meet the performance standard set by the state to pass each course.

“I think the STAAR test will be more effective than TAKS because it will measure what a student has learned in their core classes that year instead of a culmination of what they have learned over several years,” Coats said.

With the STAAR tests, courses that require an EOC exam will require a midterm semester exam; no exemptions will be permitted on these exams, as outlined in House Bill 3 of the Texas Legislature.

“When I heard we couldn’t have exemptions, I was kind of disappointed,” freshman Danielle Darrow said. “I was looking forward to not having to take [finals] if we knew the curriculum well enough already.”

The tests are aimed at encouraging students to especially focus on the end-of-year tests, something the state feels students did not do with TAKS.

“I think the STAAR test should make students take their core courses more seriously and work harder to learn the material taught in the class,” Coats said. “I hope students will take it seriously and work hard to do their best.”

For more information, including a list of courses which require STAAR tests:

Leander ISD’s Star Testing Information Page