1 in 5 Texas schools got a D or F rating under new performance standards

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Texas public school ratings — which grade how well districts educate their students — drastically dropped after the state implemented stricter scoring standards, new data released Thursday shows.

Low performance ratings on the state’s A-F scale set the stage for big consequences. Parents may enroll their students at a different campus, and businesses may forgo investments in those communities. Districts that get consecutive failing grades can face bruising state sanctions, like an order to shut down underperforming schools or a state takeover.

The Thursday release of ratings for the 2022-23 school year marked the first time failing grades for districts have been made public in five years. The percentage of schools in the state that got an F rating increased from 4.5% in 2019 to 7.6% in 2023.

Of the 8,539 public schools evaluated in the state, 19.3% received an A. Another 33.6% got a B, 24.7% a C, and 14.8% a D.

Fort Worth ISD was the only district that had a school get an F rating five years in a row, meeting the threshold for a state takeover, the highest level of state intervention.

Performance scores for schools and districts are based on three categories: how students perform on state tests and meet college and career readiness benchmarks; how students improve over time; and how well schools are educating the state’s most disadvantaged students.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath interpreted the 2022-23 declines as a stabilization of student improvement after rapid recoveries following the pandemic. School districts across the state, meanwhile, say new accountability standards made it harder to get a high rating.

Ratings dropped for districts under stricter standards

The 2023 ratings show 56% of Texas’ high schools had more of their seniors prove they were ready for college, the military or the workforce than the previous school year. At the same time, nearly 90% of campuses saw their student readiness score decrease, a reflection of higher standards that went into effect that year.

“We keep raising the bar so that Texas is a leader in preparing students for postsecondary success,” Morath said during a call with reporters Tuesday.

In the 2022-23 school year, for the first time, TEA only awarded an A in college and career readiness when 88% of a school’s graduates were considered ready for life after high school. That’s up from 60% in previous years.

A legal battle blocked the release of the ratings for 19 months. More than 120 districts across the state argued TEA did not give them adequate notice before rolling out stricter college and career readiness benchmarks.

An appeals court earlier this month ruled that Morath did not overstep his authority when he made those changes, clearing TEA to make the 2023 A-F grades public.

The role poverty plays in ratings

Districts with higher rates of low-income students were more likely to get a D or an F than their wealthier counterparts. Almost none of the school districts with a rate of low-income students lower than 20% received an overall rating of D or F.

Schools in lower-income areas are often working with fewer resources to meet the same goalposts as every other school in the state. Opponents of the rating system say it is unfair for schools working with fewer resources and doesn’t reflect the enormous needs of educating students coming from struggling families.

Chronically underperforming schools put districts at risk of sanctions 

The ratings released Thursday show Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade in Fort Worth was the only school that has accrued five consecutive years of failing scores.

Teachers have struggled to build out high-quality curricula for math and reading because of leadership turnover, contributing to years of low performance ratings, Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Karen Molinar said.

“The ratings are not new to us, even though they're just newly released,” Molinar said. “We're making changes. They're very bold, but they have a sense of urgency.”

Molinar said the district will have Texas Wesleyan University help oversee operations. That kind of partnership is a life raft for struggling districts: Handing over the management of underperforming schools to a nonprofit, university or charter group means a two-year pause from sanctions.

The Fort Worth ISD school board also voted last month to close the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade and move students to the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Middle School.

At least five other districts across the state had campuses with four years of unacceptable grades, bringing them closer to state sanctions.

One of those districts, Wichita Falls ISD, shut down Kirby Middle School in 2023 and moved students to a new building. But a TEA spokesperson said district leadership largely stayed the same, which means their failing grades — and the possibility of state sanctions that come with them — will follow them to their new campus.

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