Assessing the Assessments: 2025 State Bills on Summative Assessments
As most state legislatures wrapped up their 2025 sessions, we reviewed key education bills that were considered, enacted, or defeated across four topics: college and career pathways; immigration-related education policies; statewide summative assessments; and school accountability. In this blog, we will be examining a few of the bills related to statewide summative assessments that caught our eye.
This year, we saw a wave of legislative efforts aimed at scaling back statewide summative assessments. While these proposals may resonate with concerns about overburdening educators and students, they risk undermining the value and utility of summative assessment data for identifying gaps in student learning and school quality. While many states introduced or enacted legislation aiming to reduce the volume of statewide summative assessments, others explored how the results of these assessments could be better used to expand access to advanced academic opportunities. Together, these bills highlight the ongoing tension between efforts to reduce summative testing and the importance of maintaining it to better support student learning.
Limiting Statewide Assessments
The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to give statewide summative assessments to all students in English language arts (ELA) and math annually in grades 3-8 and once in high school. The law also requires states to administer tests in science once in grades 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12. Statewide summative assessments are typically administered at the end of the school year to measure whether students have met grade-level standards and provide students, families, education leaders, and policymakers with valuable, comparable data on student achievement and school quality. Recognizing the value of statewide assessments, many states go beyond federal requirements by mandating additional tests in state laws. However, during this legislative session, several states attempted to reduce the volume of statewide summative testing.
Tennessee lawmakers initially introduced a bill that would have significantly reduced the number of state-mandated assessments, commonly known as TCAP, for students in grades 3-12. The bill would have reduced science testing from annual testing in grades 3-8 to the federal minimum. It would also have reduced social studies testing from annual testing in grades 6-8 to just one test during the grade span. At the high school level, the bill would have eliminated all the end-of-course (EOC) exams except those required by federal law. Currently, high school students take EOC exams in English I and English II, Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry (or Integrated Math I, Integrated Math II, and Integrated Math III), Biology, and U.S. History and Geography.
Fortunately, the final enacted version took a much different form. It creates an advisory committee to review state and local assessments alongside other issues like teacher and principal evaluation policies, with a focus on how often students should be tested, what those tests should cover, and how the test results should be used. The 10-member advisory committee consists of eight legislators (four senators and four representatives, appointed by the speaker of their respective chambers); one representative of the State Board of Education appointed by the governor; and one representative of the Tennessee Department of Education also appointed by the governor. The committee must meet for the first time by August 1 and submit a report to the legislature by the end of the year, with any recommendations for legislation or policy changes based on the committee’s findings. The advisory committee should examine how the state currently uses summative assessment data and provide recommendations for better targeting resources to students with the greatest academic needs. In addition, the committee should review current test result reporting practices and suggest ways to make individual reports more accessible and meaningful to students and families.
Texas lawmakers introduced HB 4, which sought to overhaul the state’s STAAR summative assessment system by replacing it with shorter, more “instructionally supportive” tests. The bill did not pass before the legislative session ended; but Governor Abbott has now called a special session, which began on July 21, and included eliminating STAAR as one of the 18 agenda items.
HB 4 proposed to replace STAAR with three nationally norm-referenced tests administered throughout the school year and called for eliminating the state-mandated social studies exam in grade 8. STAAR tests are criterion-referenced assessments designed to measure student performance against the grade-level academic standards set by the state. Norm-referenced tests, on the other hand, compare a student’s score to those of other students, assigning percentile rankings as opposed to evaluating mastery of specific academic content. If this bill had passed, parents in Texas would not be able to tell if their children were meeting grade-level expectations, and education leaders and policymakers would no longer be able to compare student performance across the state and identify those in need of support. HB 4 could be reintroduced during the special session, given the Governor’s goal is to replace STAAR with “effective tools to assess student progress and ensure school district accountability.” We will continue to monitor this issue and keep you updated.
Louisiana enacted SB 246 to reduce state-mandated LEAP tests in science and social studies by moving away from annual testing to instead alternate the years in which those subjects are assessed. This will cap the total number of tests in each subject at four after the 2027-28 school year. Louisiana lawmakers also introduced SB 105 and HB 614; but neither bill passed. SB 105 (later substituted by SB 246) would have replaced LEAP, a series of criterion-referenced tests, with a nationally normed assessment. As noted above, eliminating criterion-referenced assessments grounded in state-defined academic standards
would leave parents, education leaders, and policymakers without clear information on whether students are meeting grade-level expectations. HB 614 proposed to eliminate all EOC exams for high school students while requiring a minimum ACT composite score for graduation. Currently, Louisiana offers six EOC exams; and high school students are required to pass three of them to graduate: English I or English II, Algebra I or Geometry, and Biology or U.S. History. This bill would have effectively done two things. First, it would have replaced EOC exams with the ACT, a shift that has been widely discussed in the education field. Supporters argue that this change reduces overall testing volume, lowers cost for students and families, and could boost college enrollment, especially among historically underserved students. Critics, however, question whether the ACT, or the SAT, is aligned to a state’s academic standards. Second, if this bill had passed, Louisiana would have become the latest state to join the national trend of eliminating high school exit exams.
Using State Assessments for Course Placement
While some states sought to scale back the number of statewide summative assessments, others turned to using the results of these tests to expand access to advanced academic opportunities. An increasingly popular policy approach is automatic enrollment: students who perform at advanced levels on state assessments are automatically placed in advanced courses in the following school year. Evidence shows that such policies help reduce inequities in access to advanced coursework, particularly for students from historically underserved communities.
Automatic enrollment policies were successful in two states. Virginia and Indiana enacted HB 2686 and HB 1634, respectively, to adopt automatic enrollment policies for advanced middle school math. The new Virginia law requires students in grades 5-8 with scores in the upper quartile on statewide math exams to be automatically enrolled in accelerated or advanced math courses, such as Algebra I. Similarly, the new Indiana law requires students in grades 5-7 who score “above proficient” on statewide math exams and earn a C in math coursework to be automatically enrolled in a middle school advanced math course.
The fate of automatic enrollment legislation was less positive, or at least uncertain, in two additional states. North Carolina lawmakers introduced SB 507, which aims to expand the state’s existing automatic enrollment policy for advanced math to include ELA. The bill has passed the Senate and is currently pending in the House. Arizona lawmakers introduced HB 2609, which ultimately failed. The bill would have required students in grades 6-8 who demonstrate high proficiency on statewide math exams, or earn an A in their most recent math course, to be automatically enrolled in an advanced math course.
While statewide summative assessments remain a hot-button issue, state leaders should recognize and clearly communicate their value as essential tools for measuring student learning against academic standards. At the same time, policymakers should continue to explore ways to use assessment data to inform system-level changes to enhance student outcomes and school quality.
As All4Ed continues to track the remaining legislative sessions in 2025, our State Policy Center features model legislation for policymakers and advocates on college and career pathways, digital equity, and next generation accountability. Continue to check the State Policy Center for updated information and reach out to Jenn Ellis, Director of State Government Relations (jellis@all4ed.org) for more information about technical assistance to move education policy in your state!
Meet The Author
Ziyu Zhou
Research and Data Specialist
