Passing standards for the STAAR this year will increase for the first time since the test’s implementation.

But to avoid problems, jump won’t be as high as initially planned.

The standardized test that Texas students take will be harder to pass this year, but not as hard as it could be.

This year, passing standards will be raised for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, for the first time since the test was rolled out in 2012.

The jump, however, won’t be as big as initially planned to “minimize any abrupt single-year increase” and to increase “annual performance standards annually in smaller increments,” Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams said this week in a letter to school districts.

Critics of high-stakes testing welcome the change but say it doesn’t address the core problem: Students are required to learn too much material for the test while districts are struggling to find the resources to teach it.

Randy Willis, the superintendent of the Granger school district, said that like several school districts across the state, his is still reeling from the $5.4 billion the state cut from public education in 2011.

“Even though we may have this progression approach, I don’t see it improving drastically until we really look at what we’re assessing,” Willis said. “Moving forward with this is fine, provided I have the financial resources to move forward with it. I’m not at the funding level I was five years ago.”

STAAR scores have been flat over the last four years, fueling parent concerns. “That would indicate that any increase in

the passing standards will result in more students not meeting expectations,” said Scott Placek, a Round Rock parent who is a member of Texas Parents’ Educational Rights Network.

Critics and educators say it is even more difficult to predict how students will perform this year with the higher passing standards because most STAAR tests will be administered by a new vendor, Educational Testing Service.

The Texas Education Agency expects a slight dip in passing rates but for scores to rebound after that.

Since the STAAR was first administered in 2012, the state has made a few concessions in response to similar complaints. Last year, for example, Texas students in the fifth and eighth grades had to take but did not have to pass the math portion of the STAAR to move on to the next grade because implementing a new statewide math curriculum took longer than expected.

Other changes to STAAR are coming, including shortening the time students need to take the test — presumably by simplifying the test — and creating a study to evaluate whether to reduce the amount of material on the test.

“I think that the concessions are ways to try to make sure that the outrage doesn’t grow,” Placek said. “What we saw with the last legislative session were senators and representatives finally standing up to what was the sacred cow of the education ... massive standardized assessments.”