The last piece of the 2026 STAAR picture is finally public. Science results for fifth and eighth graders, held back from the June release while the state reset its scoring standards. Both show gains — but they also show fifth-grade science still sitting far below where it was before the pandemic.
Thirty-six percent of fifth graders met grade level in science this spring, up from 29 percent in 2025 but well short of the 49 percent recorded in 2019, according to the results tracked by Texas 2036, a nonpartisan policy organization that publishes a running breakdown of state assessment data. Eighth-grade science ran considerably stronger: 54 percent met grade level, up from 46 percent in 2025 and above the 49 percent posted in 2019.
That seven-point jump in fifth grade and eight-point jump in eighth grade are the largest single-year science movements in either grade in recent years. They also arrive with an asterisk. The Texas Education Agency said in its June 16 release that the science tests were rewritten to match revised Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, and that “to ensure the updated content on the science assessments does not increase or decrease the difficulty level of the tests, standard-setting processes are being conducted.” Standard setting is the process of deciding how many correct answers count as on grade level on a new test, and it is why science was pulled out of the June release and pushed to July 31. Year-over-year comparisons on a newly standard-set exam warrant more caution than comparisons on a stable test.
The science numbers complete a 2026 result set that has been mixed but mostly upward. Grade 8 reading led the grades 3-8 results at 59 percent meeting grade level, up from 56 percent in 2025 and 53 percent in 2019. Grade 4 math improved to 49 percent from 45 percent, now above its 2019 mark of 46 percent. Grade 7 math remains 12 percentage points below pre-pandemic performance. Eighth-grade social studies rose to 32 percent from 30 percent, still under the 35 percent recorded in 2019.
Some of that grade 7 decline is a composition effect rather than a learning effect. Under Senate Bill 2124, enacted in 2023, students who perform well in elementary math are automatically enrolled in advanced middle-school math. TEA reported that 32 percent of all seventh graders took the eighth-grade math test in spring 2026, up from 16 percent in 2023, including 65,418 low-income seventh graders. When results are sorted by the grade a student is enrolled in rather than the test taken, the agency said, the share meeting grade level rose at every grade.
Commissioner Mike Morath framed the June results around that shift and around a separate policy change. “We are encouraged by continued gains in mathematics, especially with the growing number of students participating and succeeding in advanced mathematics courses,” Morath said in the June 16 release. “The gains in middle school reading are also notable, as it may be associated with the statewide ban on the use of cell phones in schools,” a reference to House Bill 1481, which took effect for the 2025-26 school year.
The science figures matter beyond the score reports. They feed the 2026 A-F accountability ratings, which state law requires TEA to issue by August 15 — a deadline the Dispatch flagged alongside the opening of the first Educational Savings Account school year. Campus and district grades for elementary and middle schools depend in part on how students performed on exactly these tests.
This is also the second-to-last year the results will look like this. Under House Bill 8, Texas replaces STAAR beginning in the 2027-28 school year with three shorter assessments given across the year, an approach the state argues will return usable data to teachers faster than a single spring test.
The House Public Education Committee holds interim hearings August 12 and 13, giving lawmakers their first opportunity to question TEA about a science result that improved everywhere and still leaves roughly two of every three Texas fifth graders below grade level.