The History of Statewide Achievement Testing in Texas

The "high-stakes" nature of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) evolved from earlier implementations of assessments explicitly linked to the Texas curriculum. A major focus of the GI Forum v. Texas Education Agency (1999) litigation challenged the assessment on this curricular link as well as other "opportunity to learn" issues. In this article, we provide a chronological summary of the evolution of these assessments in Texas. This contextual background facilitates understanding of the issues behind the litigation as we review the increasingly high-stakes nature of assessment in Texas from 1980 to present. Roles of the Texas State Legislature, the Texas State Board of Education, and the Texas Education Agency are also explained. The review provided in this article outlines how, as the assessments evolved, the procedures, process, and technical documentation expanded. These procedures and documentation provided the evidence needed to successfully defend the TAAS assessment program in federal court.