New A-F accountability ratings show continued improvement

The Texas Education Agency on Aug. 15 released its 2019 state accountability ratings for about 1,200 school districts and charter schools. Districts and charters once again received A-F ratings, but new this year are A-F ratings for individual schools. Statewide, hundreds of districts and schools improved their overall rating from 2018, TEA said in a news release.

"Performance continues to improve in Texas schools because of the tireless effort of Texas teachers, administrators and staff. I am particularly proud of the educators at the 296 high-poverty schools that achieved an A rating this year," said Education Commissioner Mike Morath. "With resources on TXschools.gov, educators and parents are empowered as they never have been before to support even greater improvements in the future."

For a closer look at the new ratings, TEA encourages parents, educators and community members to visit TXschools.gov to view district and school report cards. The website has a new look and several new features this year, including ways to analyze trends, compare performance and correlate results, as well as a map feature that provides parents the ability to more easily view ratings of nearby schools.

The ratings give districts, campuses and charter schools an overall grade based on performance in three areas: student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps. At the elementary and middle school levels, ratings are based primarily on state standardized test performance. For high schools, the A-F accountability system includes a variety of other indicators such as graduation rates; college, career and military readiness; SAT/ACT scores; and college prep course completion.

The ratings released on Aug. 15, 2019, are preliminary. Schools have until Sept. 15 to appeal their ratings.

2019 District Ratings

2019 Campus Ratings

Explore the ratings at TXschools.gov.

While some districts' have raw scores that would give them an A, TEA said some statutory domain or overall adjustment to a B or 89 may have been applied for several reasons:

• The district received an 89 overall if it includes any campus with an overall rating of D or F. In this case, the highest overall scaled score a district can receive is an 89.
• A district received an 89 domain scaled score if it includes any campus with a corresponding domain rating of D or F. In this case, the highest scaled score a district can receive for that domain is an 89.
• The district or campus received an F rating in either the School Progress, Part A or Part B domains; therefore, the better outcome of the two domains is limited to a scaled score of 89.
• The district or campus received an F rating in either the Student Achievement domain or the School Progress domain; therefore, the better outcome of the two domains is limited to a scaled score of 89.

Three districts — Houston, Snyder and Shepherd ISDs — all have at least one school that failed state ratings for five or more years in a row, potentially subjecting the districts to state penalties, including possible takeover by TEA.

Superintendents have until mid-September to appeal their ratings, and final decisions will be out by the end of the year.