What can Texas' 2024 STAAR results tell us about reading needs at a state level?

Two weeks ago, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released the Spring STAAR assessment results for learners in Grades 3 through 8. It’s the second set of Spring results since the STAAR redesign in 2023, and it’s not been the easiest reading for educators in the state: we’ve seen several worrying dips in proficiency, and those losses are impacting learners across the curriculum.

• There’s been a drop in Science comprehension. Only 56% of fifth-graders met the Science grave-level standard , a 21-point percentage slip on 2019’s numbers.
• Math performance across all grade levels has declined after two years of small post-pandemic gains. Only 41% of students in Texas demonstrated an adequate understanding of the subject.
• And in a worrying move, results from the reading side of things showed students’ proficiency in Grades 3, 5, and 8 had decreased, each dropping by 2% .

What conclusions can we draw from this?

It’s not the worst set of results we’ve seen in recent years, and that stands as a testament to how hard educators across the state have worked, and how incredible that effort has been.

But these are big skill gaps. And if this kind of slippage becomes a long-term trend, then we’ll be witness to cohort after cohort of school leavers struggling to attain the basic proficiencies that they need to move on to the next stage, whether that’s college or transitioning into work.

“We’re setting up a generation of students to struggle to attain the certifications and degrees and diplomas that the generation before them was able to achieve.” — Mary Lynn Prudena, senior policy advisor at Texas 2036.

The relevance of reading

We can see that there are some reading slips in these STAAR results: they’re not chasms yet, and not across the board— but they’re likely going to stick around and deepen unless there’s significant intervention on the horizon, which is deeply worrying.

When reading skills aren’t up to grade standard, that impacts comprehension and achievement across the whole curriculum. Science and math-based reading is harder than average, with a lot of subject-specific lexis, so there’s a good chance that a percentage of Texas’ math and science slips might have reading at their root in addition to organic subject deficits.

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??Educator feedback backs it up, too: we surveyed over 500 US educators and asked them about reading needs in their school, and the results are striking—? ?according to our data, over 70% of readers in the US are 12 months or more behind where they’re supposed to be, and need a lot of extra help.

Reaching for the STAARs? Fly out with a pilot you trust!

Improving reading ability and giving learners the confidence to tackle text independently is key to boosting grades in every subject. But we know that finding the right support is hard, too. You need to know that the method you pick is going to work for those learners because there’s no room for gambling when the stakes are this high and budgets are so tight.

That’s why we’ve created the Scanning Pens District Pilot Program !

When your district takes part, you’ll get a full 60 days to trial award-winning text-to-speech reading support with your learners, and the opportunity to report back to us, all completely guided by our dedicated Education Team.

The stats speak for themselves: secondary students, on average, report a 100% improvement in all categories and reading comprehension and self-efficacy with their reading pen. And 100% of primary readers report an increase in reading for pleasure ????

To kickstart the reading support journey in your district, get in touch with the Scanning Pens team using our District Pilot Program Request Form … or find out more at our blog !