How did San Antonio schools perform on STAAR this year?

This year’s STAAR scores show San Antonio students performing a little better than last year. 

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Scores for the 2025-26 school year mark a pivotal point for several San Antonio-area schools who’ve been struggling with academic achievement for years, especially since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic when learning was moved online. 

While standardized testing has gone by different names over the years, moved online and undergone big refreshes, the purpose of STAAR is to measure “mastery” of the education standards set by the state of Texas. 

But educators warn against using the STAAR as the only way to compare and grade schools. 

“It’s one day, it’s a snapshot of one day, and you know lots of things go into a school year,” said Shawn Bird, deputy superintendent of San Antonio Independent School District. “If a kid’s having a bad day, they may not do well. Doesn’t mean that they don’t know this stuff. I think that’s the danger of our accountability system.”

Texas primarily uses STAAR scores to rate schools via the A-F accountability system, which is top of mind for several San Antonio-area school districts with academically failing schools.

In Texas, if a school gets a failing D or F-rating enough times in a row, the entire school district is under risk of state intervention and sometimes a takeover.

San Antonio has several schools with consecutive failing ratings, and the Texas Education Agency ordered school leaders to submit turnaround plans for around 30 of them, 18 of which belong to SAISD. 

This STAAR season marks a pivotal moment for those campuses where the priority is to accelerate learning as much as possible.

How did high schoolers do?

Texas high schoolers and some middle schoolers take end-of-course exams in Biology, Algebra, English I, English II and U.S. History.

Last year, English scores stagnated or declined across San Antonio. This year was mostly the same, with small increases in percentage of students scoring on level or higher across San Antonio school districts, and 4-point increases statewide in both English I and English II.

Michael Littlefields, director of programs under the curriculum and instruction department of Harlandale ISD, said accelerating learning has been difficult in secondary English. 

“We’ve hit a certain spot, and we’re having a hard time getting over that,” he said. Harlandale implemented a brand new curriculum for grades K-5 last year, which improved scores in elementary school.

“If sixth grade isn’t building upon that, then there’s going to be problems, and that conversation is taking place throughout all of secondary now,” Littlefield said.

In Algebra, one of the harder subject areas to teach and learn, a higher percentage of test-takers scored on grade level than last year in most San Antonio schools.  

Notably, South San ISD, currently under state control, saw a 15-point jump in students who scored on grade-level or higher, going from 18% to 33%. It’s still far from the 54% of South San students who scored on level or higher in 2019, but South San’s growth outpaced the rest of San Antonio and the state.  

Across Texas, 54% of Algebra test-takers scored on grade level or higher, compared to 47% last year and 62% in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools into virtual learning for at least a year. 

While U.S. History scores improved across the state, mostly San Antonio scores stayed the same, with some backsliding and some moderate increases that took two districts back to pre-pandemic levels of grade-level achievement: SAISD and Southwest ISD. 

Taken all together, Bird expects several SAISD high schools, none of which are academically failing, could go up a letter grade in the A-F system.

Results mixed for kids in 3-8

From the subjects students in grades third through eighth test for, math is probably the most difficult. 

“If a gap is formed in knowledge early on, it tends to just kind of widen as time goes on,” said Littlefield. “Whereas reading, there are ample opportunities to go back and, you know, go over the material again and again and again.”

Statewide, eighth graders only gained two percentage points in math, losing two points in seventh grade and gaining one point in sixth grade. Gains were also minimal across elementary math. 

Overall, 43% of students in Texas met grade-level expectations in math, up 1% from 2025. 

San Antonio followed the same pattern, with some districts seeing gains in some grades, especially fourth and eighth grade, while others backslid. 

Most districts went down a few points in third and seventh grade, especially where there were significantly fewer students testing than last year. 

In Harlandale ISD, for example, 31 students tested for seventh grade math compared to 60 last year. On-level performance dropped from 11% to 6% during the same time. 

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“When you’re testing that few students, you know you can get to the point where a single family can actually start to bend some of the results if they have enough children enrolled in the system,” said Littlefield. 

But there were a couple of bright spots. 

SAISD saw a 10-point increase in grade-level performance in fourth grade math. It was also the first year SAISD implemented a universal math curriculum across the district, including the math portion of the state’s new Bluebonnet curriculum, which is free to use. 

“Usually when you adopt a new curriculum, scores go down, but our math in grades 3-8 trended up across the district, so that was good news,” Bird said.

South San ISD saw a 10-point increase in on-level performance for 6th grade math. Edgewood ISD saw a 15-point increase in eighth grade math, and Harlandale ISD saw a 13-point increase in the same area. 

Reading, history stay mostly the same

Only eighth graders take the social studies STAAR. Statewide, 32% of students met grade-level standards, a two-point increase from 2025 and three points away from pre-pandemic levels. 

In San Antonio, school districts saw a mix of moderate bumps and stagnation. Notably, Alamo Heights ISD, which didn’t see much change in other subjects, saw a 14-point increase in grade-level performance in eighth grade social studies, surpassing pre-pandemic levels by 9%.

In reading, the percentage of students meeting grade-level expectations across Texas remained the same compared to last year: 54%. Unlike math and science tests, students have been outperforming pre-pandemic scores in reading for years now, but no one is sure why.

School districts have recently been implementing new reading and language arts curriculums approved or created by the Texas Education Agency. 

Harlandale ISD is one of few school districts across Texas that’s implemented the reading and language arts section of the state’s Bluebonnet curriculum for grades K-5. 

The district saw small 1- and 2-point gains in grade-level reading for third, fourth and fifth grades. 

Littlefield expects achievement to keep growing as Harlandale uses the Bluebonnet curriculum longer. 

Like math, SAISD plans to implement a universal reading curriculum at the middle school and elementary level for the upcoming 2026-27 school year. The district’s 3-8 reading scores stayed mostly the same as last year.  

How did turnaround schools do?

Unlike high schools, which can lean on college, career and military readiness and graduation rates for their A-F ratings, middle and elementary schools rely almost exclusively on STAAR scores. 

That’s why turnaround efforts, including curriculum changes and teacher development are usually focused on elementary and middle schools.

In San Antonio, TEA required at least five school districts — SAISD, Edgewood, Northside ISD, Judson ISD and Harlandale ISD — to create turnaround plans for around 30 failing campuses in total. 

Most districts saw mixed results in their priority schools, seeing big jumps in some grade levels, stagnation in others and even some decreases. Officials usually point to staff turnover as one of the reasons for slipping or stagnant scores, especially when it comes to school principals and other campus leaders. 

Mead Elementary School in Northside ISD saw gains in every subject area and grade level, outperforming San Antonio’s pack of turnaround campuses. 

Compared to last year at Mead, grade-level performance in third grade math rose by 11 points and by more than 20 points in fourth and fifth grades. Reading scores saw smaller, but still significant gains. 

Mead has gotten F-ratings from the state for the past three consecutive years, but NISD officials are hopeful the school can improve its rating this year based on its growth. Overall, the district saw huge improvement at the elementary level. 

“There were many practices, “ said Janis Jordan, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “But what one practice helped yield this was… increased progress monitoring and taking action, providing support, making sure a high quality teacher is in front of students.”

There’s some missing information which could help or hurt school districts when it’s time for the state to calculate A-F ratings. Some students took science STAAR this year, but those results aren’t out yet because TEA recently made changes to the exam. Districts are also waiting on their special education reports and other pieces of accountability that don’t have to do with testing. 

STAAR will also undergo changes in the next few years. Next school year, high schoolers will no longer take the English II exam, which will put more weight on the other test subjects. 

By the 2027-28 school year, students will take three shorter tests throughout the school year instead of the yearly STAAR, which is supposed to help with student monitoring and intervention.