Dozens of Arlington ISD campuses get improved ratings after appeal to TEA
Arlington ISD is celebrating after dozens of its schools saw their accountability ratings improve following an appeal to the Texas Education Agency.
Six campuses saw their A-F accountability letter grades increase, while 38 others improved on the 100-point scale but not enough for a full letter grade.
Arlington ISD Superintendent Matt Smith told CBS News Texas in an interview that in September the district appealed rankings for six schools over STAAR test scores that they felt were too low. The TEA uses STAAR tests to determine the rankings.
Specifically, the district thought scores for certain writing tests were too low, having only been scored by artificial intelligence.
"We had a number of students that were in a marginal range where we felt like we should have somebody else take a look at that. I don't believe AI can fully replace the an educator's expertise in knowing and understanding what a student can do, and I think we have to be wary of that," Smith said.
In a letter sent to the district, TEA commissioner Mike Morath acknowledged there were errors in how some of the test scores were processed. The campuses that improved by a full letter grade include:
- Arlington High School – C to B
- Berry Elementary School – F to D
- Duff Elementary School – B to A
- Hill Elementary School – C to B
- Ousley Junior HIgh School – B to A
- Peach Elementary School – D to C
For the updated ratings, the TEA re-graded 4,300 tests by hand at a cost of more than $170,000 which Arlington ISD paid for. The process resulted in AISD's overall rating to rise by just one point, to 77 from 76.
Smith said that despite the small change to the district's rating, it was worth going through the appeal process.
"It wasn't about the district rating for me. I'm glad that we're moving up, but it was really about students and making sure each student had the ability to have an accurate assessment of what they're about to do, and that's why we did this," he said.