Texas STAAR reading rescore requests nearly triple

Texas school districts requested reviews of tens of thousands of STAAR reading scores this spring, raising questions about scoring accuracy as families await decisions that can affect academic support and graduation requirements.

Schools submitted 64,489 rescore requests, up from 21,620 in spring 2025 and 2,758 in spring 2024, according to a Texas Tribune report carried by WFAA.

Human reviewers increased more than 13,300 reading scores. Of the responses whose scores improved, computers had originally graded 58% and people had graded 42%, the Tribune reported. People conducted all rescores.

The increases represented less than 0.5% of all open-ended reading responses statewide. For individual students, however, a small change can move a result into a higher performance category.

How rescoring works

Districts pay $50 per test when a requested review leaves the score unchanged. If the score changes, the review is free, according to the Tribune.

House Bill 8 also requires automatic rescoring of constructed responses when a one-point improvement would move a student to the next reading performance level, according to the Texas Education Agency’s guidance.

More than 250 districts and charter networks requested reviews this spring, and nearly 90% received at least one score increase, the Tribune reported.

Dallas ISD submitted more than 5,100 reading tests for review. About 34% received higher scores, and the changes helped five campuses improve their accountability ratings before the state released them in August.

What is known locally

Rescore totals for Wylie ISD, Plano ISD and Garland ISD were not available for this report.

Wylie ISD earned an overall score of 92 and an A in the 2026 state accountability ratings, according to the district’s announcement. Those ratings reflect performance during the 2025–26 school year.

Plano ISD received an 85 and a B, three points above its previous score, according to the Murphy Monitor.

Garland ISD reported gains in four of five tested subjects. In English I, 65% of students met grade-level standards, up four percentage points from 2025, according to the Sachse News.

Those results do not establish whether the districts requested rescores or whether reviews changed their ratings.

Questions about automated scoring

TEA began using an automated scoring engine for open-ended STAAR responses in December 2023. Human scorers remain part of the process.

Rachel White, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas, told the Tribune that the growth in requests suggests educators increasingly disagree with the scores assigned to their students’ writing.

TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky said scoring every response by hand would require four to five times as many human scorers and cost an additional $15 million to $20 million annually, according to the report. He said the agency continues to use human reviewers while automated scoring allows faster results.

The corrected scores involved responses initially graded by both people and computers, underscoring that scoring disagreements are not limited to the automated system.

A new assessment is coming

Texas will replace STAAR with the Student Success Tool beginning in the 2027–28 school year under House Bill 8.

The new system will include beginning-, middle- and end-of-year assessments for grades 3–8, along with changes to high school testing, according to TEA’s implementation overview.

For now, STAAR remains part of the state’s assessment system. Families with questions about a child’s reading score can contact their school or district testing office to ask how the result was reviewed and whether a rescore was requested.