Today, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released 2025–26 STAAR End-of-Course (EOC) assessment results, giving families, educators, and communities an early look at how students across Texas performed in key high school subjects.

Across Dallas County, the results show encouraging signs of progress:

Dallas County grew the percentage of students meeting grade level standards by 7 points across all five End-of-Course assessments — Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology, and U.S. History, outpacing the state’s growth of 5 percentage points.

Across Dallas County, students demonstrated growth across all five EOC assessments, with 14 of the county’s 15 largest school systems increasing their overall percentage of students meeting grade levels across EOCs. Of those 15 systems, 7 surpassed the growth seen by the state.

Some of the strongest gains came in Algebra I and Biology, two courses closely tied to long-term student success after high school. Since 2025:

Dallas County students saw a
‍9 percentage point increase in Algebra I proficiency
and a
12 percentage point increase in Biology proficiency
at the Meets Grade Level standard

These results matter because success in subjects like math, science, and reading helps students build the foundation needed for college, career training, and future high-demand, high-wage careers.

Research consistently shows that students who succeed in Algebra I are more likely to stay on track for postsecondary success. Biology also builds important skills connected to healthcare, technology, science, and other fast-growing industries across North Texas.

Statewide assessments provide an important comparable benchmark and opportunity to better understand where progress is happening, where challenges remain, and what practices may be helping students succeed.

State assessments are designed to help educators, families, and communities understand where students are progressing and where systems may need to respond differently. Assessment results shouldn’t be viewed as a judgment of students, but as a call to action for educators, school systems, policymakers, and communities — learning from areas of growth while identifying where additional support may still be needed.

These results also arrive during an important transition period for Texas public education. Under House Bill 8, Texas will begin transitioning away from STAAR in the coming years toward a new assessment model designed to provide schools and families with more frequent feedback throughout the school year.

The EOC results released this week represent the first installment of a broader picture of student outcomes that will continue to emerge throughout June as additional STAAR results are released for grades 3–8.

The Commit Partnership will continue analyzing the data to better understand where students are making progress, where challenges remain, and which practices may help accelerate long-term student success across Dallas County.

To explore the latest Dallas County STAAR results and trends, view our STAAR Results Data Dashboard here.

Commit’s dashboard reporting initial insights and results of STAAR EOC Results for Dallas County can be found here.

Parents and families can also access their student’s individual STAAR results through the Texas Education Agency’s Family Portal here.

These results reflect years of work by students, teachers, school leaders, families and community partners across Dallas County. While there is still more work ahead, today’s release provides encouraging evidence that many students are continuing to move forward academically and build the skills needed for future opportunity and school systems are enacting systemic changes that enable student growth.

FAQs: Understanding STAAR & End-of-Course Assessments

1. What is STAAR?

STAAR stands for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. It is the statewide testing system used in Texas public schools to measure how well students are learning grade-level material in core subjects such as reading, math, science, and social studies.

2. What are End-of-Course (EOC) exams?

EOC exams are STAAR tests taken primarily by high school students in five core subjects upon completion of the corresponding course:

Algebra I
English I
English II
Biology
U.S. History

These exams help measure whether students have mastered the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), the expectations of what Texas Students should know and be able to do at the end of each grade level and core content area. The TEKS are determined by the State Board of Education.

3. Why do these results matter?

Statewide assessments provide important insight into:

where students are making progress
where additional support may still be needed
what practices may be helping students succeed

The data can help schools, educators, families, and policy-makers better understand student learning trends over time.

4. What were the biggest takeaways from this year's Dallas County EOC results?

For the last two years, Dallas County student growth outpaced students across the state across all five EOC subjects.

Economically Disadvantaged students in Dallas County outpace economically disadvantaged students across the state in all five EOC subject areas.

Black and Hispanic students in Dallas County outpace Black and Hispanic students across the state in all five EOC subject areas.

An economically disadvantaged student is more likely to be on grade level in Dallas County than the average economically disadvantaged student across the state. The same goes for emergent bilingual students and black students.

Disparities between the performance of economically disisadvantaged and non-economically disadvantaged and emergent bilingual and non-emergent bilingual students are closing. The disparity in performance is smaller in Dallas county than across the state.

5. Why are Algebra I and Biology important?

Success in Algebra I is closely connected to future postsecondary success. Research shows students who succeed in Algebra I are more likely to stay on track academically after high school. Biology also builds foundational knowledge connected to health care, science, technology, and other fast-growing industries across North Texas.

6. What does "Meets Grade Level" mean?

Student performance on STAAR is separated into four performance categories – Master Grade Level, Meets Grade Level, Approaches Grade Level, and Did Not Meet Grade Level. Students who score at the Meets Grade Level standard are generally considered to be:

well prepared for the next grade level or course
likely to succeed in future coursework with minimal additional support

While the number of questions needed to reach “Meets” varies by subject, grade, and year, it is on average at least 50% of questions correct for EOCs (compared to 30%-40% for Approaches level and 70%+ for Masters).

7. What can schools and communities learn from this data?‍

Assessment results can help identify:

districts or schools experiencing strong growth
subjects where students are improving
areas where additional support may still be needed
whether certain student groups, such as emergent bilingual students and students with disabilities, are receiving the academic support necessary to succeed and strategies that may be contributing to student success

Assessment results shouldn’t be viewed as a judgment of students, but as a call to action for educators, school systems, policymakers, and communities.

8. Will Texas continue using STAAR in the future?

As a result of recent state legislation, Texas will transition away from STAAR within the 2027–28 school year. The new assessment system is designed to provide teachers, school systems and families with more frequent feedback throughout the school year rather than relying on a single end-of-year test.

9. Why does Commit Partnership's analysis matter?

TEA makes statewide assessment data publicly available, and the information is often shared through reports and data files that require time, context, and technical expertise to fully interpret. One of The Commit Partnership’s roles is to help translate and make accessible that data into actionable insights that can be more easily understood and used to inform decisions that support student success.

‍Commit’s 2025–26 STAAR Results Data Dashboard helps turn complex state data into accessible, visual insights that allow educators, policymakers, funders, and community leaders to compare results across places, student groups, subjects, and years. We also provide additional views of the data that are especially relevant to local decision-makers, including county-level trends, regional comparisons, legislative districts, and other groupings that are not always easy to see through state reporting alone.

That matters because numbers only drive change when people can make sense of them and act. As an independent nonprofit, Commit Partnership works alongside districts and community partners to interpret the results, highlight where students are thriving, pinpoint where they need more support, and align everyone around the policies and strategies that move learning forward.

Working alongside our partners, we interpret the analysis and mine it for insights that help everyone align around what the results mean and how to scale what's working for students.

10. What happens next?

The EOC results released this week are only the first phase of statewide assessment releases. Additional STAAR results for grades three through eight will be released later this month, and Commit Partnership will continue analyzing the data to better understand:

Where students are making progress
Where challenges remain
What practices may help accelerate long-term student success across Dallas County

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Dallas County Students Outpace State’s Growth in STAAR EOC Exams