diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 50fa9cd56..a591f6f6c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -81,9 +81,9 @@ jobs:
           ${{ runner.os }}-${{ matrix.pandas }}-pip-
     - run: |
         pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
-        pip install -r requirements.txt "${{ matrix.pandas }}" "${{ matrix.numpy }}"
-        pip install -r requirements-test.txt
-    - run: make install
+        make install_test_pandas
+
+    - run: pip install "${{ matrix.pandas }}" "${{ matrix.numpy }}"
 
     - run: make test
 
@@ -129,9 +129,9 @@ jobs:
           ${{ runner.os }}-${{ matrix.pandas }}-pip-
     - run: |
         pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
-        pip install -r requirements.txt "${{ matrix.pandas }}" "${{ matrix.numpy }}"
-        pip install -r requirements-test.txt
-    - run: make install
+        make install_test_pandas
+        
+    - run: pip install "${{ matrix.pandas }}" "${{ matrix.numpy }}"
 
     - run: make test_cov
 
@@ -144,9 +144,9 @@ jobs:
           ${{ runner.os }}-${{ matrix.pandas }}-pip-
     - run: |
         pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
-        pip install -r requirements.txt "${{ matrix.pandas }}" "${{ matrix.numpy }}"
-        pip install -r requirements-test.txt
-    - run: make install
+        make install_test_pandas
+        
+    - run: pip install "${{ matrix.pandas }}" "${{ matrix.numpy }}"
     - run: make test_cov
     - run: codecov -F py${{ matrix.python-version }}-${{ matrix.os }}-${{ matrix.pandas }}-${{ matrix.numpy }}
 
@@ -181,7 +181,6 @@ jobs:
       SPARK_VERSION: ${{ matrix.spark }}
       HADOOP_VERSION: ${{ matrix.hadoop }}
       SPARK_DIRECTORY: ${{ github.workspace }}/../
-      SPARK_HOME: ${{ github.workspace }}/../spark/
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - name: Setup python
@@ -212,15 +211,16 @@ jobs:
             ${{ runner.os }}-${{ matrix.pandas }}-pip-
       - run: |
           pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
-          pip install pytest-spark>=0.6.0 pyarrow==1.0.1 pyspark=="${{ matrix.spark }}"
-          pip install -r requirements.txt
-          pip install -r requirements-test.txt
-          pip install "${{ matrix.pandas }}" "${{ matrix.numpy }}"
+          make install_test_spark
+      - run: pip install "${{ matrix.pandas }}" "${{ matrix.numpy }} pyspark=="${{ matrix.spark }}"
+      # Make sure the proper version of pandas is install after everything
+      - run: |
+          pip show pandas numpy pyspark
       - if: ${{ matrix.spark != '3.0.1' }}
         run: echo "ARROW_PRE_0_15_IPC_FORMAT=1" >> $GITHUB_ENV
       - run: echo "SPARK_LOCAL_IP=127.0.0.1" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-      - run: make install
-      - run: make install-spark-ci
-      - run: pip install -r requirements-spark.txt # Make sure the proper version of pandas is install after everything
+      - run: |
+          sudo apt-get update
+          sudo apt-get -y install openjdk-8-jdk
       - run: make test_spark
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 366c07037..74f852e32 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ package:
 install_dev:
 	rm -rf $(VENV)
 	python -m venv $(VENV)
+	$(PYTHON) -m pip install --upgrade pip
 	$(PYTHON) -m pip install -e ".[dev, test]"
 
 install_test_pandas:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 11227c5e0..e778f6a6c 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ classifiers=[
 
 dependencies = [
     "scipy>=1.4.1, <1.12",
-    "pandas>1.1, <2.1, !=1.4.0",
+    "pandas>1.1, <2.0, !=1.4.0",
     "matplotlib>=3.2, <=3.7.3",
     "pydantic>=1.8.1, <2",
     "PyYAML>=5.0.0, <6.1",
diff --git a/tests/backends/spark_backend/conftest.py b/tests/backends/spark_backend/conftest.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..879e681f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/backends/spark_backend/conftest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+import pytest
+from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
+def spark_session():
+    spark = (
+        SparkSession.builder.master("local[1]")
+        .appName("local-tests")
+        .config("spark.executor.cores", "1")
+        .config("spark.executor.instances", "1")
+        .config("spark.sql.shuffle.partitions", "1")
+        .config("spark.driver.bindAddress", "127.0.0.1")
+        .getOrCreate()
+    )
+    yield spark
+    spark.stop()