TEA can now release 2023 A-F accountability ratings
AUSTIN (KXAN) – On Thursday, a judge with Texas’ 15th Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) can now release its 2023 A-F school accountability ratings.
“A through F is a bill I championed when I was in the senate, I championed when I was the chair of public education and have championed as Lt. Governor,” said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. “Before A through F, in districts and schools, parents did not know what the result of their school was in terms of how it graded out.”
The A-F ratings are based on multiple factors including graduation rates, the number of college, career, military-ready students and State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) results.
In 2023, the state announced the system would change, making it more difficult for schools to reach certain benchmarks to get good ratings.
Under the newest methods of the A-F accountability rating, many high schools would need higher graduation rates and more students to be considered college, military and career-ready, or CCMR, to maintain their campus scores.
The previous scales would have given a campus an A if 60% of its students were college, career and military-ready. However, under the new metrics or “cut points,” a campus would need 88% of its students to be college, career and military-ready to get an A score.
More than 100 school districts pushed back and joined a lawsuit against the TEA, hoping to stop the release of the 2023 performance ratings.
The districts argued that they did not have enough notice before introducing the new standards.
“This is one of the best tools to create competition and excellence and it is very interesting, even though there have been these lawsuits stopping the ratings from becoming public, superintendents and principals who had A and B schools and districts were very proud to leak them,” Patrick said.
KXAN reached out to Rep. James Talarico who weighed in on Thursday’s announcement.
“Greg Abbott has spent the last few years trying to discredit our neighborhood public schools so he can defund them with a private school voucher scam,” Talarico said. “I’m deeply concerned our accountability system is being weaponized to undermine public education.”
There is another lawsuit involving the 2024 ratings, which is still waiting a decision from the same appeals court.
KXAN reached out to the TEA for comment.
“This ruling is an important victory and restores a transparent lens into 2023 district and campus performance,” said TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky. “Yet, there is still a second lawsuit that denies parents and the public access to 2024 accountability ratings. TEA remains hopeful that the best interests of students, families and communities will prevail in this second suit and will share additional information on the issuance of 2023 A-F ratings soon.”
