School will soon be tougher for Texas students, going by the
harder standards and more rigorous questions found inside the
STAAR. STAAR stands for the State of Texas Assessments of
Academic Readiness. It's the new standardized test replacing the
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills for public school
students currently in third through ninth grades. All high-
schoolers besides this year's freshman class will continue to
fall under the old TAKS system as educators phase the new test
in. The first round of tests starts next month. "We've heard
it's going to be a lot harder," said Ariana Solis, an eighth-
grader at Rio Bravo Middle School in the Ysleta Independent
School District. Materials put out by the Texas Education Agency
indicate Solis is right and the STAAR will be far more rigorous
than the TAKS. Xavier De La Torre, superintendent of the Socorro
Independent School District, explained state educators and
lawmakers got rid of the TAKS for the students' sake. "Students
who on the surface appeared to be do