School performance ratings for 2023 were just released by the Texas Education Agency Thursday morning.
The ratings, an A-F grading system for schools and districts, come two years late because school districts sued Education Commissioner Mike Morath in 2023 to block the TEA from releasing its accountability reports.
“Accountability works,” Morath said this week. “The public issuance of ratings for school systems does positively affect the academic and life outcomes of children.”
In the lawsuit Morath v. Kingsville Independent School District, more than 120 school districts, including Southwest ISD, claimed Morath overstepped in changing the metrics for ratings, which are legally required to undergo a “refresh” every five years.
But plaintiff school districts argued they weren’t given enough time to adjust to the new standards. The updated A-F system, which was applied to the 2022-23 school year, was released in January of 2023.
While two Travis County judges originally ruled in favor of the school districts in 2023, the 15th Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month that TEA release accountability ratings for the 2022-23 school year.
Here’s how area school districts performed in 2023:
Using the 2023 updated system, TEA released “What If” ratings for the 2021-22 school year, which would’ve been the district’s scores had they used the old A-F system.
Overall, schools districts scored lower using the 2023 system and higher using the 2018 system. For example, Northside ISD would have scored an 81 in 2022 using the updated system, but under the previous rating system would have scored an 84.
Different education nonprofits, businesses groups and parents filed an amicus brief against the 2023 injunctions, including Texas 2036, a nonpartisan public policy think tank.
“Texas families deserve transparency about how their schools are performing because these decisions affect their children’s futures,” Mary Lynn Pruneda, the director of education and workforce policy at Texas 2036, said.
Accountability ratings are powerful tools the community can use to understand whether schools are meeting the needs of all students, Pruneda added.
Here’s how area charter school networks performed in 2023:
The Gathering Place, a super inclusive charter school serving K-6 students, received notice from the TEA in February that the school’s charter license would not be renewed after years of poor performance ratings. The school will close its doors after the 2024-25 school year ends.
Celebrate Dyslexia, a charter for K-4 students with dyslexia, does not have available ratings because the school opened in August of 2024.
How did ratings change?
Ratings are measured using whichever of the two is better: student achievement, including STAAR results, graduation rates and college and career readiness, or overall student growth. Scores also take into account how schools are closing education gaps.
Individual campuses also get rated relative to how they’re performing in comparison to similar schools across the state.
Based on this methodology, Morath said it’s “mathematically possible for everybody to get an A.”
Under the 2023 standards, high schools are only rated A campuses if 88% or more of its seniors enrolled in college, pursued a non-college career or enrolled in the military. The previous rating system set the threshold at 60%.
As a result of the updated A-F system, ratings for high schools largely went down, Morath admitted.
“The increase in cut scores related to college, career and military readiness did cause some declines in high school ratings, even when the high school’s performance increased,” Morath said on a call with reporters April 22.
For elementary and middle schools however, ratings went up as a result of the refreshed system. This is because the 2023 accountability system weighs student growth and acceleration in learning more than it had before.
Morath said school districts knew changes were coming, adding that he consulted with parents, superintendents and other educators to receive feedback on the updated system years before it was released. He said accountability is the cross school administrators bear for being publicly funded.
And changes to the system are not about achieving perfection, he says.
“This is about action planning and continuous improvement.”
Highlights from 2023 A-F system
Across the state, 1,084 campuses improved their ratings from 2022 to 2023, and Morath said school districts had access to the 2023 school performance ratings the whole time.
In Von Army, the SSGT Michael P. Barrera Veterans Elementary School in Somerset ISD is a school where 88.9% of students are economically disadvantaged and it received an A rating of 91.
“Schools have had access to all of this raw data, and could have made this publicly available; could have used it to inform parents,” Morath said.
Morath said students and their families have been denied the public benefits of having the most recent ratings. When a campus is low-performing, meaning it received D or F ratings, parents are automatically entitled to request a school transfer for their child. Until Thursday, families had to use 2021 school ratings to determine which school to enroll their students in.
The TEA is set to release accountability ratings for the 2024-25 school year on Aug. 15, and families will be able to use those ratings to request a transfer in case their child is enrolled in a D or F campus.
Before 2023, the system was refreshed in 2018, and the next upgrade is scheduled for 2028. Before the state legislature amended the law in 2017, school ratings systems changed every year, making them a “moving target” Morath said.
State lawmakers are currently considering Senate Bill 1962, which would make it harder for school districts to sue the state when they believe changes to the accountability ratings systems are unfair.
The bill passed the Senate after the chamber’s Education Committee on K-16 held a public hearing where no one, including superintendents or school administrators, spoke out against the bill. SB 1962 now heads to the House education committee for consideration.
There is a separate lawsuit, Morath v. Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD, blocking the release of 2023-24 A-F accountability ratings. That case is pending litigation in the same appeals court that ruled the TEA could release 2023 ratings in Morath v. Kingsville ISD.
“We are still enjoined by the courts” to hold onto the 2024 ratings, Morath said, adding that the plaintiffs in both cases used taxpayer dollars to move their lawsuits forward.
