Texas school grades halt lawsuit divides districts

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The legal attempt to block Texas from publishing school performance grades has sparked a divide between district leaders who worry the scores are an inaccurate representation of their own work and others who say parents need the information to make choices about their children’s education.

A coalition of about 30 school districts recently sued the Texas Education Agency over the introduction of a computer system for grading the state’s standardized tests, which are used to calculate part of Texas schools’ performance ratings. The previous year, school districts filed a similar lawsuit, claiming the agency had raised a benchmark that also factored into their scores too quickly. Judges from Travis County sided with the school districts in both cases, ordering temporary injunctions that prevent the TEA from publishing the ratings for two school years.

The latest lawsuit has been met with unease by some school administrators, a marked change since more than 100 districts filed the initial lawsuit to form a united front against the TEA.

While the state has been forced to release ratings this year, some school districts in Bexar, Dallas, El Paso and Harris counties have voluntarily released their own campuses’ estimated scores. A board member from Midland unsuccessfully petitioned the court to intervene in the case, saying standardized testing was wasting time and money when the public can’t access school performance ratings.

“If I’m going to put up billboards promoting our academic programs or our early college high school programs and put up a flashy website, I feel it’s incumbent on me to put out the notes to the same community, to the same parents,” said Xavier de la Torre, superintendent of the Ysleta school district in El Paso.

The TEA rates every public and private school in the state on an A-F scale. A failing grade can trigger state sanctions and Could lead to TEA takeover in the worst cases, a district. Low scores can also push families to leave the district and lead to less funding, since schools receive money from the state based on enrollment.

Some school administrators have criticized the automated computer system used to grade the statewide standardized test this year, saying the tool should be reviewed by a third party before it becomes available. They believe declines in reading scores statewide are due to errors in the system and will result in unfair school grades.

School administrators also said they didn’t get enough notice when the TEA imposed stricter expectations on how schools prepare students for life after graduation. High schools now earn “A” grades only if 88% of seniors enroll in college, pursue a noncollege career or serve in the military, compared with 60%.

Temple School District Superintendent Bobby Ott said he does not foresee such a change in career readiness criteria.

“It wasn’t even a target we could prepare for, and it was completely unnecessary,” he said. “You can’t measure progress in real time with a ‘ready, fire, aim’ approach. That’s not a system that’s been built… There’s no chance of achieving that target.”

But critics question whether the ensuing lawsuits are the best way to address concerns about the changes. Families have gone five years without a full picture of how their schools are doing. Texas did not release school ratings in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; in 2022, Texas lawmakers ordered the state to release only AC ratings.

Ott acknowledged that legal battles are not the best way to resolve disagreements about the changes, but said lawmakers are leaving districts with no choice because they haven’t addressed their concerns.

Dallas Independent School District was among the first districts to join the lawsuit. A year later, it was one of the first to voluntarily publish its own ratings.

“We’re all subject to the same calculation. So just because (the state’s rating system) is flawed doesn’t mean we shouldn’t measure it at all,” Dallas ISD Superintendent of Schools Stephanie Elizalde said. “I feel like I have an obligation to our community and frankly the state of Texas to say, ‘Here we are.’”

Elizalde said his district joined the initial lawsuit because it wanted another year to understand the new college and career readiness metrics before they go into effect. Now that year has come and gone, Elizalde said his district needs to be transparent about its grading so his team can set performance goals — even if he shares some of the computer-scoring concerns listed in the latest lawsuit.

“How can I describe how we’ve improved if I don’t talk about where we are now?” he said.

Dallas ISD is expected to receive a C grade this year, down from the B grade it received in the 2021-22 school year.

Parents rely on AF scores to understand how their local schools are performing, and if they have the resources, they can use this information to decide which school to send their children to.

In the El Paso area, school districts in that area have open enrollment, meaning families can apply to enroll their children in any school in the area, regardless of where they live. Ysleta, Socorro and El Paso school districts have published their ratings so parents can make informed decisions.

Charter school administrators say making the information public is also helpful to them, as many parents find out after evaluating their local public schools and then pulling their children out if they are unhappy.

“If parents and communities don’t understand how their neighborhood schools are performing against state standards, then parents are left in the dark,” said Jeff Cottrill, superintendent of IDEA Public Schools, Texas’ largest private school.

The fissures among district leaders over the AF accountability system come as next year’s legislative session looms. Lawmakers are expected to propose a new school voucher bill that would allow families to use taxpayer money to pay for their children’s private school education. Districts are also expected to demand an increase in the base dollar amount they receive per student after five years of no increase.

Elizalde in Dallas worries that withholding information about public schools’ performance could undermine her claims.

“We know we’re going to ask for funding for schools. Am I really in a position to say our schools need funding, but I don’t want to tell you how we’re doing? It didn’t feel right to me.”

Asked how the case would impact school principals’ legislative demands, Ott said he hopes the case will be a catalyst for a complete overhaul of the AF system.

Ott said families in her district have lost trust in the standardized testing system. Instead, she added, they want school ratings to measure whether schools are safe and the experience and tenure of teachers.

“There has to be accountability and transparency,” he said. “But they have to be good, solid systems that people can trust and that have credibility. And that’s the problem right now. It’s an old system.”

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