Release of long-delayed 2023 TEA school ratings shows declines for major North Texas ISDs
The Texas Education Agency released 2023 A-F performance ratings for individual public schools and districts Thursday.
The release comes after the TEA prevailed in a years-long lawsuit filed by over 100 school districts which challenged the legality of changes to the rating system.
The full list of ratings is available on TXSchools.gov.
What are A-F ratings for individual schools and districts?
A-F ratings were first issued for Texas public school systems in 2018. They rate schools based on their academic performance. Similarly, as students get graded on an A-F scale per subject, schools across Texas are graded A, B, C, D or F.
Here are the grade definitions, according to the TEA:
- A: Exemplary performance when they serve most students well, encouraging high academic achievement and/or appropriate academic growth for almost all students. Most students will be prepared for eventual success in college, a career, or the military.
- B: Recognized performance when they serve many students well, encouraging high academic achievement and/or appropriate academic growth for most students.
- C: Acceptable performance when they serve many students well, but need to provide additional academic support to many more students.
- D: Performance that needs improvement by serving too few students well. Not enough students are making adequate academic progress for eventual success in college, a career, or the military.
- F: Unacceptable performance by serving only a small number of students well. Most students need more academic support for eventual success in college, a career, or the military.
The TEA judges districts in three categories:
Student Achievement, which measures whether students met expectations on the STAAR test, the graduation rate and how prepared students are for success after high school.
School Progress, which measures how students perform over time and how the district's performance compares to other districts with similar economically disadvantaged student populations.
Closing The Gaps, which measures how well a district is ensuring that all student groups are successful.
Legal fight against the ratings
Many school districts have pushed back on the ratings, especially those frustrated and disappointed with how their schools rated.
In 2023, the TEA changed the grading criteria on which schools are rated. In a lawsuit first filed by Kingsville ISD, school districts argued the new rating system made it harder to achieve an A, and the TEA did not give schools enough notice about the new "measures, methods, and procedures."
As a result, over 100 school districts, including Dallas ISD, Plano ISD, Fort Worth ISD and Garland ISD, sued Mike Morath, the TEA commissioner.
According to the lawsuit, the TEA unlawfully lowered A-F ratings for the 2022-2023 school year by retroactively changing the rules in a way that will decrease ratings for many school districts, even though the ISDs claimed performance improved.
The lawsuit prevented the TEA from releasing the 2023 ratings until this month, when an appeals court ruled in favor of the TEA.
