Understanding Texas’ A-F School Grades
Texas parents can finally see the A-F grade their children’s schools earned — in 2023. Dallas ISD scored a C, while Fort Worth ISD got a D. Families can find all 2023 campus and district scores at TxSchools.gov.
Half of Texas schools earned an A or a B. Roughly 14% scored a D, while 7% received Fs. However, parents won’t get a true sense of how a school is doing until this summer, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath warned.
Delayed Release of A-F Scores
The state’s annual release of academic accountability ratings was upended by lawsuits for the past two years. Texas Education Agency officials recently won the ability to publish the 2023 scores, which they did Thursday.
The agency is still prohibited from issuing 2024 ratings because of ongoing legal action. Grades from the current school year are on track for an August release. Overall, the state’s 2023 A-F ratings decreased from 2022, which Morath attributed to a decline in academic growth following the pandemic.
Dallas ISD’s Performance
In Dallas ISD, 47 schools earned an A. Another 74 scored a B, 66 got Cs, and 37 earned Ds. Eight campuses were given Fs. Failing campus grades can trigger state consequences if the school doesn’t improve quickly.
Morath lamented how long it’s taken to share information about Texas public schools’ performance. A yearly release provides parents with transparency about how a campus is doing and pushes trustees to turn failing schools around! said Morath, who is the father of school-aged children and who previously served on the Dallas ISD board.
Private Schools and A-F Grades
Private schools in Texas are not graded. The 2023 A-F scores were blocked after a coalition of school districts sued Morath over changes to the formulas used to grade them on how well they prepared students for life after high school.
Morath said the system’s refresh was part of a five-year cycle. Updates were needed to make sure that schools were continuously working to improve outcomes for students, he said. But school leaders pushed back, saying the formula changes were not made transparently and that districts didn’t have enough notice.
Concerns Over Formula Changes
They worried the shifts would lead to lower scores, which they said was unfair. Dallas ISD’s score did go down, as predicted. The district earned a B in 2022. “Educators want and support accountability,” said HD Chambers, executive director of the Texas School Alliance, which represents 50 of the state’s largest districts.
But shifting metrics after the fact and then using them to label schools as underperforming is both irresponsible and misleading. A recent decision by the 15th Court of Appeals sided with Morath and cleared the way for the 2023 scores to be released.
What is Texas’ A-F System?
Texas’ A-F system grades every public campus across the state. It has a major effect on how communities view local schools, influencing where people buy homes and enroll their children. The grades are based largely on standardized test scores.
The state looks at three categories for the grades: student achievement, school progress, and closing the gaps. “Student achievement” considers how children performed on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, tests.
How A-F Grades are Calculated
For high schools, it also weighs graduation rates and other metrics. “School progress” factors in how much improvement students made year over year or how well they did in relation to comparable campuses. “Closing the gaps” looks at how schools educate children in different groups, such as those living in poverty or receiving special education services.
Seventy percent of the grade is based on either student achievement or school progress — whichever is the higher grade — while closing the gaps makes up 30%. After the pandemic, many schools earned high marks in school progress as they caught up students after historic losses.
Importance of A-F Grades
One reason it’s essential for A-F grades to be released is so school leaders can learn from success stories, the commissioner said. He highlighted the 305 high-poverty campuses that earned an A in 2023, including Longview High School, where more than 80% of students came from a low-income family.
What would have been ideal is, in the fall of ’23, for us to highlight these schools, Morath said. Overall, state data shows that 75% of A-rated campuses are low-poverty schools. That falls to roughly 10% for high-poverty schools.
What Comes Next?
A separate lawsuit blocked the 2024 A-F release. That case takes issue with the use of computerized scoring of essay questions. During the 2023–24 school year, the Commissioner radically changed the way the new STAAR test is being administered by replacing human graders with AI grading, the lawsuit states.
After the change, many district officials noticed a large number of high schoolers scored zeroes on their written responses. Scores generated this way threaten to unfairly — and unlawfully — lower the A–F ratings of many school districts and campuses, the lawsuit states.
Concerns Over Computerized Scoring
Dallas ISD leaders were among those raising concerns about the new system, though not in the lawsuit. DISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said in January that the district asked the state education agency to review a sample of STAAR responses to confirm that students earned the correct score.
Of the more than 4,600 answers that DISD submitted, roughly 43% showed an improvement after they were rescored. Morath and other agency officials have defended the use of computers to score tests, saying the system is reliable and efficient.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Texas’ A-F school grading system is a crucial tool for evaluating the performance of public schools across the state. While there have been delays and controversies surrounding the release of A-F scores, it is essential for parents, educators, and policymakers to have access to this information to make informed decisions about education.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some frequently asked questions about Texas’ A-F school grading system:
Q: What do the A-F grades mean? A: The A-F grades are a way to measure the performance of public schools in Texas, based on standardized test scores, student progress, and closing the gaps.
Q: How are the A-F grades calculated? A: The grades are calculated based on three categories: student achievement, school progress, and closing the gaps. Seventy percent of the grade is based on either student achievement or school progress, while closing the gaps makes up 30%.
Q: Why are the A-F grades important? A: The A-F grades are essential for parents, educators, and policymakers to make informed decisions about education. They provide transparency about how a campus is doing and push trustees to turn failing schools around.
Q: What happens if a school receives a failing grade? A: If a school receives a failing grade, it can trigger state consequences if the school doesn’t improve quickly. Schools with low grades may be subject to intervention, such as being taken over by the state or being required to implement improvement plans.
