Test results on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, were released this month by the Texas Education Agency. El Paso Matters will provide deeper coverage of results in coming weeks, looking at performance in individual school districts and campuses. The charts below give a high-level look at trends in TEA’s Region 19, which includes El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties. More than 90% of Region 19 students are in El Paso County.
You can review state, region, district and campus results at the Texas Assessment Research Portal.
Region 19 results generally are slightly lower than state averages, though higher than averages in other large Texas cities.
Students start taking standardized tests in third grade, and continue testing through end of course exams in high school. Students must pass end of course exams to graduate; they can retake the test if they don’t pass on the first attempt.
The charts below show the percentage of Region 19 who meet or master grade level requirements. The charts include results from English-language tests administered in the spring of 2019 – the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic – and the springs of 2023 and 2024.
High school results
Students historically have taken algebra I in ninth grade, the first year of high school, but an increasing number of El Paso students are taking it in eighth grade, the last year of middle school. The Socorro Independent School District now has most of its students taking the class in eighth grade; 62% of Socorro students were rated at the meet or masters level, 10 points higher than the region average in the spring 2024 administration.
Other end of course exams are administered in the sophomore year or later.
Elementary and middle schools
Students in grades 3-8 take multiple STAAR tests. Scoring at grade level is not necessary for promotion to the next grade, but many schools use the test as a diagnostic tool for recommending extra tutoring or other interventions.
The post See how El Paso area students performed on Texas standardized tests appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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