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Texas schools submitted 64,489 requests this spring to rescore open-ended responses on STAAR reading exams, nearly three times last year’s 21,620. Human reviews led to more than 13,300 score increases, while the Texas Education Agency says fewer than 0.5% of all open-ended reading responses changed after review.
Texas schools submitted 64,489 requests this spring to have open-ended responses on STAAR reading exams rescored, nearly triple the 21,620 requests last year, according to data reported by The 74. Human reviewers increased more than 13,300 reading scores, renewing questions about the state’s use of automated scoring and the reliability of results that can affect students and school accountability ratings.
The Texas Education Agency began using an automated scoring engine in December 2023 to grade open-ended responses on STAAR reading and English tests. Under the agency’s system, humans manually review a quarter of exam scores; all rescoring requests are reviewed by people. Of the scores that increased after this spring’s reviews, 42% had initially been scored by humans and 58% by computers, The 74 reported.
The volume of requests has climbed sharply: Texas recorded 2,758 requests in spring 2024, followed by 21,620 last year and 64,489 this spring. The state corrected more than twice as many scores as the previous year. More than 250 school districts and public charter networks submitted requests, and nearly 90% had at least one reading exam score rise, according to agency data cited by The 74.
More than 3.2 million students took the reading STAAR this spring, including students in grades three through eight and those taking the English I and English II end-of-course tests. Despite the thousands of corrections, the agency said fewer than 0.5% of all open-ended responses on reading exams changed. The count of rescoring requests is not the same as the number of responses that changed: a request can cover an exam, and the reported figures do not establish that every requested score was altered.
How Score Changes Affect Students and Schools
STAAR results can affect students’ academic pathways and schools’ state accountability ratings. Texas campuses and districts receive A-F ratings based in part on how many students reach specified performance levels. When a campus underperforms for multiple years, state law gives Education Commissioner Mike Morath authority to take action, including installing a conservator or replacing a locally elected school board.
A corrected response may move a student across one of four performance thresholds: did not meet, approaches, meets or masters. Allison Matney, director of the Texas Center for School Accountability, told The 74 that a higher score could affect whether a student passes or must complete remediation hours. The possible consequences make the accuracy of scoring consequential, but the reported totals do not show how many students crossed a performance threshold or how many school ratings changed.
The growing number of requests also represents work for districts. University of Texas at Austin professor Rachel White told The 74 that it was frustrating for administrators to spend time and money reviewing results and filing requests. She said the increase suggested educators who read students’ writing were increasingly disagreeing with assigned scores, reflecting a trust problem in scoring.
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Why Texas Uses Automated Scoring
The agency introduced automated scoring after Texas redesigned STAAR to include fewer multiple-choice questions and more constructed-response questions, which require students to write answers. To develop the scoring system, the TEA used thousands of responses previously graded by people. The software was trained to identify response characteristics and assign scores intended to match human scoring.
The system drew criticism after an early round of computer-graded writing prompts saw a spike in students receiving zeros. State officials cited other possible factors behind the low scores in 2023, including the number of students retaking the exam. The agency has also said its scoring engine differs from generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini because it does not learn from one response to the next.
Some reviews are already automatic: the TEA rescored extended written responses at no cost when an exam was one point from the next performance level. Districts could seek reviews of other scores. The 74 reported that some districts used their requests for students two points from the next level, in part because the automatic reviews covered students one point 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 Rescoring Figures Cannot Show
The reported figures do not identify how many of the 64,489 requests resulted in no change, or how many score increases moved students into a higher performance category. Although the agency reported more than 13,300 reading score increases, that total does not by itself reveal the effect on graduation eligibility, remediation requirements or campus accountability ratings.
The causes of the increase are also not settled. Matney attributed it partly to wider awareness of the process, while White interpreted the growing disagreement as a possible sign of declining trust. The figures alone do not establish whether automated scores are less accurate than human scores or why particular scores were changed. The available source material also does not give a complete account of how many total requests were denied or the district-by-district outcomes.
District Reviews and State Reporting
Districts and charter networks can continue using the state’s rescoring process for eligible responses, while the TEA’s automatic reviews remain in place for extended responses one point below the next performance level. The agency’s published results show that human scorers conduct the rescoring, but the figures reported so far leave open questions about request outcomes and the number of students whose performance category changed.
Further reporting or agency data could clarify how many requests led to score increases, how often scores changed by enough to alter a performance level, and whether the revised results affected school ratings. Until those details are available, the confirmed picture is a steep rise in requests, more than 13,300 raised reading scores and a small share of all open-ended responses changed.
Key Questions
How many STAAR rescoring requests did Texas schools submit this spring?
Schools submitted 64,489 requests to rescore open-ended responses on reading exams, according to data reported by The 74. That was up from 21,620 last year.
How many scores increased after human review?
The state raised more than 13,300 reading scores after reviews. The reported information does not say how many of those changes moved students into a higher STAAR performance level.
Were the original responses all graded by computers?
No. The TEA uses a hybrid scoring system, and the scores that later increased had initially been graded by humans in 42% of cases and by computers in 58%, according to the figures reported.
Does the request total mean that 64,489 scores changed?
No. A request is not the same as a correction. The state reported more than 13,300 increased reading scores, while fewer than 0.5% of all open-ended reading responses changed after review.
Why do STAAR score corrections matter?
Scores can affect whether students meet one of the test’s performance levels and may influence remediation or other academic requirements. STAAR results also contribute to school accountability ratings, but the reported data do not establish how many ratings changed.
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