Students in Texas are"essentially back at a level that we would have expected had COVID-19 never happened in the first place,” said Education Commissioner Mike Morath regarding the release of preliminary data from this year’s state standardized exams.San Antonio students in grades 3-8 showed significant recovery in reading and noticeable improvement in math on this year’s state standardized exams, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Texas Education Agency.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said Thursday that student proficiency in reading had recovered essentially to pre-pandemic levels, touting a new state law that mandated extra tutoring for students and additional training on how to teach reading for K-3 educators. Statewide, students did not close gaps in math skills as much as in reading on the STAAR. Since 2021, the percentage of students who passed the math standardized exams improved to 40% from 35%, according to the TEA.
“It shows a lot of really hard work by teachers and students and parents to get students caught up and back on track,” he said. While Woods acknowledged the efforts of the Legislature to enact policy reforms to help students recover academic performance, he said they are not a"panacea" and that is is premature to say whether laws like HB 4545 have had an impact.