The Texas Education Agency has released a glimpse of some early STAAR test scores for students between 3rd-8th grade. For the most part, students appear to have fared well overall, but breakdowns of specific grade levels show virtually every Central Texas district has a lot of work to be done.
In terms of overall performance, the majority of students in the Austin Independent School District reached the minimum requirements for reading, writing, and math. Georgetown ISD saw gains from last year, specifically in terms of the number of students who failed. In 2018, GISD saw 62-percent of its 8th grade population fail the STAAR, but the number this year has fallen to 34-percent. The Round Rock Independent School District actually outperformed all other Central Texas districts in terms of mastery of all three subjects.
But a breakdown of the numbers begins to tell a different story, especially when it comes to reading mastery.
When looking at 5th graders across all Austin-area school districts, reading mastery is far lower than what some might expect.
The Lake Travis Independent School District’s 5th grade class showed the lowest rate of students who are not reading on grade level — 29-percent compared to 71-percent who are reading on grade level. Eanes ISD and Leander ISD had the second and third-lowest rates, at 40-percent and 41-percent respectively.
The highest rate of 5th grade students failing to read at or above grade level was in the Bastrop Indepdendent School District where 73-percent of students came in below the state standard.
The TEA will release the official STAAR results in August.
CLICK HERE to view the results.
