HOUSTON — The Houston Independent School District shared preliminary results for the STAAR Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology, and U.S. History End of Course Exams Wednesday, June 5.
HISD said students made “substantial gains” in four of five tested subjects, and in some cases far exceeded pre-COVID proficiency levels. While meaningful gains were made across the district, officials said HISD’s New Education System campuses grew at least five points in every tested subject, and in Algebra I and Biology these campuses achieved explosive double-digit growth in the number of students proficient.
“Our students and teachers did exceptional work this school year,” said Superintendent Mike Miles. “This has been a challenging year in unusual circumstances, and I am unbelievably proud of what this HISD community has accomplished together. When all the results are in, I believe HISD will have achieved some of the biggest proficiency gains in its history.”
The STAAR exams are the State of Texas indicator of how proficient students are in a given subject area. The assessment is administered only one time a year and while it is only a snapshot of proficiency, HISD’s results indicate that many more students are meeting or exceeding grade level standards in most tested subjects. Typically, one to two points in proficiency growth on STAAR is acceptable growth. At the district level, an increase of three or more percentage points over the previous year’s score is strong growth.
HISD said it is focusing on the “Meets or Exceeds” score to gauge success. While HISD will report the “Approaches” data when available, it is a lower bar than Meets or Exceeds, and HISD school leaders focus on the higher standard, which represents proficiency.
“HISD still has much work to do to increase proficiency for all students, but STAAR tells us that we are headed in the right direction,” explained Superintendent Miles. “This data shows we are improving struggling schools and closing achievement gaps that have been too big for too long.”
HISD plans to release preliminary STAAR results for grades 3-8 on June 11. The Texas Education Agency plans to release statewide data for STAAR High School End of Course exams on June 7, and for STAAR exams in grades 3-8 on June 14.
