Keri HeathAustin American-Statesman
The Texas Education Agency on Thursday morning released 2-year-oldacademic accountability scoresfor school districts and campuses statewide, giving parents the first full picture of how the state has rated public schools since 2019.
The TEA ratings are the first public look at academic performance measures after a comprehensive overhaul in 2023 of the A-F letter grade scoring system used by the agency to rank schools and districts. The TEA rates districts and campuses on an A-F letter grade scale, in which a C or higher — or at least a 70 out of 100 — is passing. It scores campuses on how students perform on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test, their growth or performance relative to other similar schools, college and career readiness, and the performance of certain high-needs student groups.
The Austin school district received a C rating in 2023, compared with a B in 2022, according to the newly released scores. Of the district’s 116 campuses, 24 received an A, 29 received a B, 11 received a C, 19 received a D, and 30 received an F in 2023. Some specialty campuses for high needs students receiving special education services, such as Rosedale School, aren’t rated.
In a news conference Thursday morning, Superintendent Matias Segura said 16 campuses that were rated an F had previously been rated a B in 2022.
“Every single day, Austin ISD educators are working hard to meet the needs of every single student,” Segura said. “We know we have to do better, and we know we need to step up to meet the increase in demands, even in an imperfect system that will not capture the brilliance of all children as they go through their educational journey.”
Segura vowed that the district has been carrying out plans to improve scores at these schools and to invest more resources in those campuses.
While the state education commissioner maintains that lower scores are a result of lower performance, some lawmakers and school districts are blasting the new state rubric as unfairly moving the goalposts for campuses.
The TEA scores were released after anappeals court lifteda temporary block on publicly disclosing this data earlier this month.
Due to several pandemic-related exemptions, the scores released Thursday offer the first chance since 2019 for families across the state to access a complete suite of information detailing how schools are performing.
Seventy-three percent of campuses statewide received a passing accountability rating in 2023, compared with 87% in 2022, according to the TEA data.
After two year pause, TEA releases 2023 A-F accountability scores
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told reporters in a call that if the updated 2023 rubric had been applied to the 2022 accountability scores, about 85% of campuses would have passed.
The 2023 scores also show a dip in campuses that passed compared with 2019 when 82% of schools received an A, B or C.
Morath said the 2022 scores were unexpectedly high because students showed unusual levels of growth — one of the factors on which students and campuses are graded — upon exiting the pandemic. Students didn’t show the same levels of growth in 2023, he said.
“That is not inherently because of the refresh," Morath said. “That is because academic growth for students was way down.”
When using the updated 2023 rubric on the 2022 scores, about 3,600 campuses — 40% of the almost 8,270 schools — received a lower score. About 1,100 campuses received a higher score, while almost 3,700 remained the same, according to TEA data.
Members of the Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus on Thursday morning called the TEA ratings “deceptive” and insisted public schools aren’t being given the financial resources to provide students with the support they need.
“TEA has changed the goalposts,” said Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston. “Help me understand how a B+ goes to an F. They literally want to convince parents to take their kids out of public schools.”
TEA school accountability ratings: Austin ISD officials, Texas representatives respond
The performance scores were released as the Austin district is weighing options for Dobie Middle School, which administrators project will receive a fourth consecutive F rating this year. If the school receives five Fs consecutively, the state is required by law to either close the campus or take over the entire district, which happened in Houston.
Austin school board President Lynn Boswell said the state’s accountability system is “aggressive” and noted more Austin campuses could require turnaround plans, like the one mandated for Dobie.
“This is truly a matter not just of serving students who haven't necessarily been well served in our schools,” Boswell said. “It is a matter at this point in saving our district, and the threat is not theoretical. We've seen what the state did in Houston, and we cannot let that happen in our district.”
The TEA has stood by its system despite criticism from school administrators.
“TEA is disappointed to see that a few school system leaders have continued to perpetuate fundamentally misleading information, as these statements do a grave disservice to children and parents,” TEA spokesman Jake Kobersky said. “When school board members, and their paid administrators, sow doubt on an independent appraisal of their school performance and instead promote a message that schools with significant academic weakness are performing just fine, students suffer.”
Texas school ratings are out. How to check your district's score
Comprehensive A-F scores haven’t been released publicly since 2019
The state didn’t score schools and districts in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it exempted the lowest-scoring schools from ratings in 2022.
In 2023, the TEA rolled out a newly designed version of the STAAR test, which students in grades three through eight and high school students take. The new test features an online format, more short written responses and reading passages that reference information students should have learned in their classes.
Although the test was administered in 2023, the state has been blocked from releasing its accountability ratings due to it updating its measuring system. Agroup of more than 100 districts sued the TEA in 2023, accusing the agency of unfairly recalibrating the rubric, delaying communication of changes, and alleging that the adjustments would result in lower scores.
A smaller group of districts filed a similar suit in 2024.
Earlier this month, the state's15thCourt of Appeals — created in 2023by the Legislature — ordered the TEA to release the 2023 scores, but the 2024 ratings are still blocked from becoming public.
