Over the past two weeks the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released 2025 results for the state’s annual State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams. To learn more about the STAAR test, check out this blog post we recently published.
Overall, this year’s STAAR results mostly showed promising gains for students across the Houston region. Higher proportions of students met grade level standards on the Algebra 1 End of Course (EOC) test, while 3rd-8th grade students across the region made strong gains in both math and reading. An area for concern was the near-universal drop in English 1 and 2 EOC scores, showing that we can’t rest on our successes. The work continues.
Our research shows that STAAR scores matter for economic opportunity, so it remains critical to understand how the growth we saw this year compared for students from different racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and home language backgrounds. When we drilled down in this way, we found a few notable trends:
- Black and Hispanic students made slightly higher gains in reading and math across all tested grades compared to their Asian and white peers;
- Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds grew at faster rates in math and reading than those from non-economically disadvantaged backgrounds;
- Emergent bilingual (EB) students’ math and reading scores stagnated or declined since 2024, while non-EB students saw gains in both; and
- Overall score differences between students from less and more advantaged backgrounds remain far too large.
What the 3rd-8th Grade Data Shows for the Houston Region
Encouragingly, 3rd-8th graders in most districts across the Houston region made progress in math and reading from last year to this year.
Overall, half of 3rd-8th graders across Houston met grade-level standards in reading, the highest proportion ever and a 3-point gain from last year. Meanwhile, 40% of students met grade level standards on 3rd-8th grade math, also up 3 points from last year, but still several points below pre-pandemic levels.
Houston students’ growth in 3rd to 8th grade math and reading outpaced growth across the state, reflecting that our schools’ relentless focus on high-impact, effective learning techniques can positively impact students.
This year’s strong growth should not make us complacent. While more than half of our 3rd to 8th graders continue to require additional support to perform at grade level in math, the progress of districts like Aldine, Houston, and Sheldon ISDs provides a blueprint for other districts to look to for inspiration. We must continue to pursue innovative strategies to push toward our goal of putting thousands more students on the path to economic prosperity in the coming years.
What The EOC Data Shows for the Houston Region
In 2025, Houston-area students were 6 percentage points more likely to meet grade level standards on both the Algebra 1 and Biology EOCs than in 2024. Houston ISD and YES Prep students, in particular, showed strong growth in math.
On the other hand, performance on the English 1 and 2 EOCs declined across the region from 2024 to 2025, with students being 2 percentage points less likely to meet grade level standards.
Looking at specific districts in our region, HISD was the only district to show growth on both the Algebra 1 and English 1/2 EOCs.
Algebra 1 is particularly important, as Good Reason Houston’s own work and the work of others across Texas highlight the crucial role that math preparation and access to advanced math pathways is to long-term success. This year’s strong growth in the percent of students meeting grade-level standards on the Algebra 1 EOC is an encouraging sign. This progress should not come at the expense of other core subjects, though, and we must continue to work to ensure the progress our students have made in reading since 2019 does not stagnate.
How Growth and Performance Varied by Student Group
Long-term achievement differences between students from different race/ethnicity backgrounds closed somewhat from 2024 to 2025. In the Houston region as a whole, Black and Hispanic students were 3 percentage points more likely to meet grade level standards in math in 2025 than in 2024, compared to 1- and 2-point gains for their Asian and white peers, respectively.
In reading, Black and Hispanic students were 2- and 1-percentage point more likely to meet grade level standards across all tested grades, compared to virtually flat achievement levels for Asian and white students.
Though this progress indicates that long-term differences in the likelihood that students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds met grade level standards closed somewhat, those differences overall remain far too large. We must do more to provide Black and Hispanic students the support and resources they need to achieve at similar levels to their Asian and white peers.
STAAR Results by Socioeconomic and Home Language Background
A nuanced story emerged when we examined STAAR results by socioeconomic and home language backgrounds. Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds were 3-points more likely to meet grade level standards in math, compared to little year-over-year change for students from non-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Conversely, the gap in math performance between EB and non-EB students grew by 3 percentage points in 2025.
Similarly, in reading, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds were 1 percentage point more likely to meet grade level standards across all tested grades, compared to no growth for their non-economically disadvantaged peers. The percentage of EB students meeting grade level in reading actually fell 1 point this year, while their non-EB peers grew 3 points.
The Bottom Line
In many ways students across the Houston region made notable progress on STAAR in 2025. And in some cases, those gains were concentrated among students from historically disadvantaged groups, like Black or Hispanic students or those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. However, students from more advantaged backgrounds remained far more likely to meet grade level standards than their less advantaged peers. This concern is particularly acute for our emergent bilingual students, as EB students made only marginal gains in math and actually regressed in reading.
Providing all of our students – no matter their background – with the support and resources to build a strong academic foundation remains critical. We must work to ensure that our highest quality teachers and highest quality curriculum are in front of the students who need them most. That is how we will build the country’s premier education city right here in Houston.
Data in The News
Here are some of the education data stories we’ve been keeping our eye on over the past few weeks.
- Houston ISD’s STAAR scores for grades 3-8 climb in reading and math | Houston Public Media: Houston ISD made among the highest gains in the region in 2025 STAAR results, and in some grades and subjects even exceeded statewide averages for the first time in years. Gains were especially pronounced at the groups of schools that joined the district New Education System (NES) for the 2024-2025 school year. As the district moves closer to a return to local control, monitoring both the successes and growth opportunities from the state’s intervention in HISD will remain critical to sustaining success and shifting course where needed.
- Most students say they’re not “math people,” RAND survey finds | The 74 Million: A growing proportion of middle and high school students don’t feel like “math people” or feel much less comfortable with the subject than they used to, according to a new national survey. Nearly half of students surveyed indicated they regularly tuned out during math class. Those who identified as “math people,” however, were much more likely to report feeling engaged in math lessons and retain the information they learned. Of those who reported feeling engaged with math, most reported developing that interest during elementary school, highlighting the importance of promoting math literacy and comfort early in students’ academic careers, especially as the need for STEM literacy continues to grow. Researchers suggested one way to reach students early was to ensure their elementary school math teachers were well-trained in and highly enthusiastic about the subject.
