The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released the standardized testing results from Spring 2025 for students in grades three through eight. The figures show that students are making more gains in reading on the Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams this year. The results also confirm that the number of elementary and middle school students who met grade level standards has now surpassed students’ pre-pandemic performance.
As Texas Public Radio reports, policy advisor Gabe Grantham, with the nonpartisan nonprofit think tank known as Texas 2036, says the reading results are nothing short of encouraging. “Not only have we seen growth since the pandemic, we’re seeing a record level of students reading on grade level, so I think there’s a lot of excitement around that, that we are moving in the right direction.”
Yet math performance results from the STAAR standardized test revealed mixed results, with some grade levels showing a decline, with other grades showing gains. Taken together, the percentage of Texas students meeting grade level in math remains below pre-pandemic levels.
Grantham says the state is moving in the right direction post-pandemic, but concedes too many students are falling behind. “And so, I think as a state we certainly need to think how do we not only recover but accelerate further because we recognize even prior to COVID, we were learning behind 52 percent of kids in terms of equipping them with math proficiency.”
Grantham also addressed what he characterized as troubling student scores in fifth grade biology and eighth grade social studies, with fewer than one-third of students achieving grade level performance. “So, if we’re in a situation where we only have 3 in 10 students being on grade level in anything, but especially now as we think about science and social studies that is a reason for concern.” Back in 2019, nearly half of all public school fifth graders achieved grade level scores in Biology. This year it was 29 percent.
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, and a graduate of the University of Washington, Jeff began his on-air broadcasting career 33 years ago in the Black Hills of South Dakota as a general assignment reporter.
