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Texas can release its 2024 A-F accountability grades for public schools after a court ruled last week to dismiss a lawsuit by several districts.
The ruling by the 15th Court of Appeals allows the Texas Education Agency to issue its second set of campus ratings since 2019. The release of the state’s academic accountability ratings has been upended in recent years due to lawsuits and COVID-19 limitations.
TEA officials recently won the ability to publish the 2023 scores, which they did in April.
Related:Texas families can see what A-F grade their local schools received — in 2023
The Education Lab
Texas’ accountability system evaluates every public school and district across the state from A-F, giving families a feel for how their local campuses are performing. The ratings are a major factor in how the community perceives local schools. They also impact analyses of schools’ property tax spending and local workforce recruitment, the ruling states.
“It is time for local courts to stop obstructing those policies,” wrote Chief Justice Scott Brister in last week’s ruling.
TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky said state officials are still reviewing the ruling and will have more information on when the 2024 ratings will be released soon.
Related:What are Texas’ A-F school grades, and why do they matter?
In 2024, several school districts sued TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, alleging the A-F grades would be invalid due to results from flawed State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, tests. The ratings are largely based on these standardized test scores.
District officials argued the commissioner can’t assign A-F ratings because the test isn’t “valid and reliable.” They questioned the use of computers to score students’ essays on the assessment — a new method rolled out in December 2023.
Related:A-F grades for Texas schools blocked again by a judge
Scores generated this way “threaten to unfairly — and unlawfully — lower the A-F ratings of many school districts and campuses,” the 2024 lawsuit states.
Many administrators noticed a large number of high schoolers scored zeroes on their written responses. Dallas ISD, for example, asked for about 4,600 answers to be rescored by a human and roughly 43% of them showed an improvement. The district was not part of the 2024 lawsuit.
Related:‘How valid and reliable is this?’: Dallas ISD raises questions about STAAR test scoring
Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde told The Dallas Morning News in January that she will likely never know how those rescored responses could have impacted the district’s overall academic performance.
“What I saw in classrooms did not align with what our actual results were,” she said.
Dallas ISD spokesperson Nina Lakhiani said the district did not have any comment to share on last week’s ruling at this time.
Morath and TEA officials have defended the state’s methodology, describing it as a tool with narrow abilities that improves efficiency and as accurate as human scores.
In 2023, Dallas ISD joined other districts in a separate suit challenging Morath, claiming changes to scoring methods for college, career or military readiness would unfairly give campuses lower marks. A court sided with Morath earlier this year and TEA released its 2023 ratings in April.
Related:Texas families can see what A-F grade their local schools received — in 2023
Dallas ISD scored a C, a decrease from its B rating in 2022. Half of Texas schools earned an A or B. Roughly 14% scored a D, while 7% received Fs.
Grades from the most recent school year are on track to be released in August. Those scores will provide parents with the truest sense of how their children’s schools are doing.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
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Texas can release its 2024 A-F accountability grades for public schools after a court ruled last week to dismiss a lawsuit by several districts.
The ruling by the 15th Court of Appeals allows the Texas Education Agency to issue its second set of campus ratings since 2019. The release of the state’s academic accountability ratings has been upended in recent years due to lawsuits and COVID-19 limitations.
TEA officials recently won the ability to publish the 2023 scores, which they did in April.
Related:Texas families can see what A-F grade their local schools received — in 2023
The Education Lab
Texas’ accountability system evaluates every public school and district across the state from A-F, giving families a feel for how their local campuses are performing. The ratings are a major factor in how the community perceives local schools. They also impact analyses of schools’ property tax spending and local workforce recruitment, the ruling states.
“It is time for local courts to stop obstructing those policies,” wrote Chief Justice Scott Brister in last week’s ruling.
TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky said state officials are still reviewing the ruling and will have more information on when the 2024 ratings will be released soon.
Related:What are Texas’ A-F school grades, and why do they matter?
In 2024, several school districts sued TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, alleging the A-F grades would be invalid due to results from flawed State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, tests. The ratings are largely based on these standardized test scores.
District officials argued the commissioner can’t assign A-F ratings because the test isn’t “valid and reliable.” They questioned the use of computers to score students’ essays on the assessment — a new method rolled out in December 2023.
Related:A-F grades for Texas schools blocked again by a judge
Scores generated this way “threaten to unfairly — and unlawfully — lower the A-F ratings of many school districts and campuses,” the 2024 lawsuit states.
Many administrators noticed a large number of high schoolers scored zeroes on their written responses. Dallas ISD, for example, asked for about 4,600 answers to be rescored by a human and roughly 43% of them showed an improvement. The district was not part of the 2024 lawsuit.
Related:‘How valid and reliable is this?’: Dallas ISD raises questions about STAAR test scoring
Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde told The Dallas Morning News in January that she will likely never know how those rescored responses could have impacted the district’s overall academic performance.
“What I saw in classrooms did not align with what our actual results were,” she said.
Dallas ISD spokesperson Nina Lakhiani said the district did not have any comment to share on last week’s ruling at this time.
Morath and TEA officials have defended the state’s methodology, describing it as a tool with narrow abilities that improves efficiency and as accurate as human scores.
In 2023, Dallas ISD joined other districts in a separate suit challenging Morath, claiming changes to scoring methods for college, career or military readiness would unfairly give campuses lower marks. A court sided with Morath earlier this year and TEA released its 2023 ratings in April.
Related:Texas families can see what A-F grade their local schools received — in 2023
Dallas ISD scored a C, a decrease from its B rating in 2022. Half of Texas schools earned an A or B. Roughly 14% scored a D, while 7% received Fs.
Grades from the most recent school year are on track to be released in August. Those scores will provide parents with the truest sense of how their children’s schools are doing.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
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