The Texas Readiness Guide: What's Coming and What to Do Now
If you're a Texas district leader heading into back-to-school season with more on your plate than usual, you're not imagining it.
Four significant changes are hitting Texas K-12 at the same time. Each one touches a different part of your operation. Together, they don't leave much room for a slow start.
Here's what's changing, what it means for your role, and what to have in place before the year begins.
1. Three Testing Windows Per Year
What to Know
Texas is replacing STAAR with three shorter assessments administered at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. The mandatory shift takes effect in 2027-2028, but the operational implications are real now. Districts that wait until the requirement is final to rethink their testing logistics will be starting from scratch under pressure. The time to build the process is before it's required.
Many districts already run local assessments on a similar cycle. But state assessments carry a different operational load. Managing accommodations, room assignments, and proctor scheduling through a state platform like Cambium/TIDE three times a year is a different lift than a local benchmark cycle. The compliance requirements alone change the equation.
What to Ask
- Does our current process depend on being rebuilt each cycle, or does it run the same way every time?
- Do all campuses run testing the same way, or does each one figure it out independently?
- Can we produce a clean compliance record at the end of each window without manual assembly?
- Are we set up to track passing status and retesting eligibility accurately across three cycles, and flag students who need intervention before graduation requirements are at risk?
What to Do
If you're the District Testing Coordinator: Your current process may have been built for one major window. Three cycles means the volume triples. Audit your accommodation management and scheduling process now, before the new model is mandatory.
If you're a Campus Testing Coordinator: Three windows a year means testing never fully goes away. If you're rebuilding your process each cycle, that's not sustainable. You need a workflow you can run the same way every time.
If you're a Superintendent or Assistant Superintendent: This operational lift hits every campus simultaneously. Districts without a centralized, consistent process will spend time they don’t have reacting. Get your buildings on the same system before the new model hits.
2. Revamped T-TESS Rubric on the Horizon
What to Know
TEA is overhauling the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS) rubric. The updated framework, called T-TESS 2, is piloting in 2026-2027, with recommended statewide implementation in 2027-2028. That's not far off. Districts that start now, reviewing their evaluation processes, training appraisers, and making sure their systems can absorb a rubric change, will have a meaningful head start. Districts that treat this as a future problem will feel it the moment the new rubric is required.
What to Ask
- If the rubric changes tomorrow, how much manual reconfiguration does our evaluation system require?
- Are all evaluators across all buildings documenting observations the same way right now?
- Can we connect evaluation data to district-level reporting without manual exports?
- Can we aggregate campus and district level data to determine actionable next steps regarding professional development or growth opportunities?
What to Do
If you're a Building Principal: Review your current evaluation platform now. Find out exactly how much reconfiguration is required if the rubric changes. You need to know that answer before 2026-2027, not during it.
If you're a Director of Curriculum and Instruction: Audit inter-rater reliability across your buildings. If evaluators aren't documenting observations consistently now, a rubric change will make that worse. Get them on the same process before the new framework arrives.
If you're a Superintendent or Assistant Superintendent: Put T-TESS 2 readiness on your planning calendar for this year. Identify which buildings are most at risk of inconsistent implementation and make sure your evaluation system can update without a manual overhaul.
3. New CCMR Rules Taking Shape
What to Know
College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) isn't just a graduation metric anymore. It factors into all three domains of Texas's A-F accountability system, and how it's calculated is changing in meaningful ways over the next several years.
Near-term, the rules around Industry-Based Certifications (IBCs) and CCMR metrics overall are tightening. Starting with 2027 accountability, students must be completers in a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program of study and earn an aligned IBC to be CCMR Met. In 2028, a cap takes effect on lower-value Tier 3 IBCs. And beginning with 2031 accountability, CCMR indicators will be weighted differently based on their demonstrated connection to postsecondary outcomes, not just whether a student earned them.
Here's why that matters right now: the students entering high school this fall are the first cohort whose CCMR outcomes will be calculated under the new weighted methodology. The pathways your counselors and CTE directors are building today will determine how your district performs under a system that rewards quality, not just completion.
What to Ask
- Are our counselors tracking students against CCMR pathway quality, not just whether a student is enrolled in a qualifying course?
- Are all counselors working from the same data, or does each one maintain their own version?
- Can we produce CCMR reporting quickly when district leadership or the state asks for it?
What to Do
If you're a School Counselor: Map your current caseload against the updated CCMR indicators now. Identify which students are on pathways that will count under the new weighted methodology and which ones aren't. That gap is your intervention list.
If you're a Director of Counseling or CTE: Audit your CTE program of study alignments against the current IBC list, including the upcoming tiered IBC thresholds. If your pathways aren't set up for that, this is the year to fix it.
If you're a Superintendent or Assistant Superintendent: Ask your counseling and CTE teams to show you how they're currently tracking CCMR pathway quality, not just enrollment. If the answer is a spreadsheet, that's your gap.
4. TIA Shifting How Performance Connects to Pay
What to Know
Teacher Incentive Allotment changes are connecting observation records directly to compensation decisions. How evaluation data is collected, stored, and reported now has direct financial implications for teachers and districts alike. Every observation record needs to be consistent, defensible, and accessible.
What to Ask
- If a TIA decision were challenged today, could we produce a clean, consistent evaluation record for every affected teacher?
- Are our evaluation records consistent across all buildings and all evaluators, or does documentation vary?
- Is there a clear connection between our evaluation system, student growth data, and HR records, or are we managing that gap manually?
What to Do
If you're a Building Principal: Pull a sample of your observation records from last year. Check for consistency across evaluators and cycles. If you find variation, address it now, before this year's data becomes part of a compensation decision.
If you're an HR or Talent Director: Confirm that your evaluation system and HR records are currently connected and reconciled. If you're managing that alignment manually, document the process and identify where it could break down under scrutiny.
If you're a Superintendent or Assistant Superintendent: Commission a district-wide audit of evaluation documentation consistency across all buildings. TIA disputes will follow the paper trail. Make sure yours is clean before a decision gets challenged.
The Common Thread
Every one of these changes puts pressure on the operational systems underneath your district's work: testing, evaluation, graduation tracking, and compliance documentation. None of them are going away. And they're all landing at the same time.
The districts that navigate this well won't necessarily have more staff or more budget. They'll have better systems and a partner who already understands the Texas landscape.
Education Advanced has been working alongside Texas districts for more than 15 years. We've been through mandate changes before. We know what the future implications look like, and we build for them before they arrive.
If you want to talk through where your district stands and what to have in place before school starts, we're ready when you are.
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