Some El Paso school districts surpassed the state average in Algebra I and other core subjects on this year’s STAAR exams, but had significant performance gaps in others, including biology, according to results released last month by the Texas Education Agency.
Testing data on TEA’s Region 19, which includes El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties, show the area’s schools made significant strides in improving test scores in recent years. More than 90% of Region 19 students are in El Paso County.
Students usually begin taking State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests in third grade and continue until high school, when they take their end-of-course exams, which are required to graduate. Students can retake the test if they don’t pass on their first attempt.
State, region, district and campus results can be found on the Texas Assessment Research Portal.
Starting the 2027-28 school year, the TEA is planning to replace STAAR exams, which are normally taken in spring, with three shorter tests taken at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. The changes were approved by state lawmakers last year, during the 89th Texas Legislature.
The charts below show the percentage of students enrolled in El Paso’s three largest school districts who met or mastered grade-level requirements, compared with the region and state.
High school
While Texas students traditionally take the Algebra I end-of-course exam in high school, the state in 2024 began encouraging schools to place high-performing students in advanced math classes that would allow them to take the test and corresponding class in eighth grade, the last year of middle school. The initiative became known as the Middle School Advanced Mathematics program.
Some, including El Paso and Socorro school districts, went further and have enrolled almost all their eighth graders in the class. Since SISD implemented the change in 2022, it has had some of the highest eighth-grade Algebra I STAAR test scores in the county.
Seventy-five percent of SISD students were rated at the meet or masters level in the Algebra I end-of-course exam, 21 points higher than the state average. EPISD implemented the change at the start of the 2025-26 school year and has the poorest performance of the three large districts in the subject, but was only three points below the state average.
Testing data also revealed that some El Paso students outperformed in biology compared with the rest of the state, while other followed closely behind. While the state average stands at 71% and the region at 68%, El Paso’s three largest districts, with YISD at 75%, SISD at 72%, and EPISD at 65%.
Data on Regions 19’s test scores show the number of students who were rated at the meet or masters level in Algebra I, history and biology gradually increased over the last three years.
The region saw declines in both English I and II test scores in 2025, but they rose again this year.
Elementary and middle school
Starting in third grade, elementary and middle school students usually take an English and math test every school year. They also take a social studies test in eighth grade and a science test in fifth and eighth grade.
STAAR science scores aren’t expected to be released until July 31, as the state updates the standard-setting processes.
Under Texas law, students enrolled in the advanced math program can skip one of their normally required math tests to complete the Algebra I end-of-course assessment in eighth grade.
Fewer than 150 EPISD students and about 20 SISD students took the seventh-grade math exam — 97% and 100% of them, respectively, did not meet expectations. Most of these students transferred from other districts or had other issues that prevented them from taking part in the program.
YISD students, across all elementary and middle school grade levels, on average, scored significantly lower in math than the state.
In reading, SISD students consistently outperformed across every grade level, with 67% of eighth graders meeting or mastering expectations, compared with the state average of 59%.
YISD students in earlier grade levels showed strong performance in reading, particularly in third grade, where 60% of students met or mastered grade level, compared to the state average of 51%.
EPISD elementary school students in grades 3-5 either met or exceeded state levels in reading, but scores for middle school students in grades 6-8 fell just below the state average.
In social studies, SISD and YISD both exceed the state average of 32%, by 3 and 1 percentage points, respectively, while EPISD trails slightly behind by 4 percentage points.
The post Some El Paso STAAR scores surpass state average, gaps remain in others appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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