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Texas schools and charter networks submitted 64,489 requests this spring to rescore open-ended responses on reading STAAR exams, nearly three times last year’s 21,620. The Texas Education Agency said human reviewers raised more than 13,300 scores; the agency reported that under 0.5% of open-ended reading responses had score changes.
Texas schools and charter networks requested 64,489 reviews of students’ open-ended reading STAAR responses this spring, nearly triple the 21,620 requests made the year before, according to Texas Education Agency data cited by The 74. Human reviewers raised more than 13,300 reading scores, renewing questions about computer-assisted scoring and the review process.
The number of requests has climbed sharply since the state began using automated scoring for open-ended STAAR responses. In spring 2024, districts sought 2,758 rescoring reviews of reading responses; the total rose to 21,620 the following year and then to 64,489 this spring. The state made about twice as many corrections as in the previous year, The 74 reported.
Of the scores that changed after review, humans had initially scored 42% and computers had scored 58%. Human scorers conducted all the rescoring. More than 250 public school districts and charter networks submitted requests, and nearly 90% of those entities had at least one reading exam score increase, according to agency data cited in the report.
More than 3.2 million students took reading STAAR exams this spring, including students in grades 3 through 8 and those taking English I and English II end-of-course tests. The agency said fewer than 0.5% of all open-ended reading responses had a score change. That percentage refers to responses, not the share of students or requests that resulted in a correction.
Why Rescored STAAR Points Matter
STAAR results affect more than a student’s test record. Scores can determine whether students meet performance levels, including whether they may need remediation, and the results also contribute to campus and district A–F accountability ratings. A small change can matter when a score is near a performance threshold.
Texas law allows the education commissioner to take action when campuses underperform over multiple years, including appointing a conservator or replacing a locally elected school board. The rescoring trend therefore matters to students, families and school systems, though the reported number of corrections alone does not establish how many students crossed a performance level or changed an accountability outcome.
The rising requests also point to a practical cost for schools: administrators must identify responses they believe merit review and submit requests. UT Austin professor Rachel White described the increase as a possible trust problem in scoring, while state officials defend the hybrid process as faster and less costly than having people score every response.
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How Texas Scores Written Responses
The Texas Education Agency introduced an automated scoring engine in December 2023 for open-ended responses on STAAR, including reading and English assessments. The move followed a STAAR redesign that reduced the number of multiple-choice questions and added more constructed-response items. To develop the scoring system, the agency used thousands of responses previously scored by people to teach the computer to assign scores matching human judgments.
The system drew criticism after an initial group of computer-scored exams saw a spike in students receiving zeros on writing prompts. Agency officials pointed to other possible factors in the low scores, including the number of students retaking the exam. The agency says its automated scoring is not generative AI such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini: it does not learn from one student response to the next.
The state also automatically rescores extended constructed responses at no cost when a student is one point from the next performance level. Districts can request additional reviews. Some officials said the automatic reviews let them direct limited funds toward students farther from the cutoff, including students two points away.
“That traction of superintendents talking to each other — (and) media continuing to talk about it — made more districts aware that not only can they do this process, but actually they should, and they need to.”
— Allison Matney, director of the Texas Center for School Accountability
What the Review Totals Cannot Show
The figures do not explain why every district submitted a request, how many individual students were included, or how many score increases moved students into a higher STAAR performance level. The report gives the share of changed responses that had initially been scored by people or computers, but does not provide a full comparison of error rates for each scoring method.
The rising request count may reflect increased awareness, disagreement with scores, or other factors; it does not by itself prove that computer scoring caused inaccurate results. The source report also does not provide a complete district-by-district breakdown of requests and corrections. Dallas ISD said it sought reviews because it believes students benefit from human scorers, but the supplied report excerpt ends before giving the district’s total request count.
Districts Await Scoring Follow-Up
Schools will continue to use the state’s review process to challenge scores they believe warrant another look. The Texas Education Agency has said its hybrid approach is designed to preserve human judgment while returning results faster and avoiding the additional staffing and annual expense that hand-scoring every response would require.
The next useful public information would include clearer data on how many requested reviews changed a student’s performance level, how results differed by initial scoring method, and whether the state plans changes to scoring or review procedures. The source material does not specify a date for a further agency report or announce a change to the current system.
Key Questions
How many STAAR rescoring requests were made this spring?
Texas schools and charter networks submitted 64,489 requests to rescore open-ended responses on reading exams, according to agency data cited by The 74.
How many scores changed after human review?
The state raised more than 13,300 reading scores. The report says fewer than 0.5% of all open-ended reading responses had a score change; that is a response-level figure, not a student-level rate.
Were all the original responses scored by computers?
No. Among scores that changed after rescoring, 58% were initially assigned by computers and 42% by people. Humans conducted every rescore.
Why do STAAR score changes matter?
Scores can affect whether students meet a performance level and whether they may need remediation. STAAR results also contribute to school accountability ratings, although the report does not say how many corrections changed a student’s level or a school rating.
Does the increase prove the computer scoring system is inaccurate?
No. The request totals and corrections do not, on their own, establish the cause of the increase or compare error rates for computer and human scoring. The agency defends its hybrid system, while some educators and researchers have raised concerns about trust in the scores.
Source: rss
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