Texas schools receive their latest state report cards Friday, giving families a new look at how well campuses are educating students while pushing some chronically low-performing schools closer to state intervention.
At least five districts — Austin, Waco, Greenville, Ector County and Ralls — enter this year’s ratings on the brink of possible state action.
In Austin, preliminary ratings released by district officials Thursday showed two middle schools failed to meet state standards for a fifth consecutive year. Austin ISD as a whole earned a B.
Five consecutive failing grades can trigger severe consequences under Texas law. The education commissioner must either close a persistently failing campus once it reaches that threshold or replace the district’s locally elected school board with an appointed board.
Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura told the Austin Current that he has not been in communication with state officials about the education commissioner’s plans for the district.
“I understand there is an anxiousness and concern in the community,” Segura told the Current. “We are going to be here tomorrow, the teachers are going to show up, we are going to do the work to ensure their student gets what they need, regardless of what that looks like for that specific family, for that specific school. AISD will continue to be here; we have been here for 145 years.”
There was better news in Ector County and Greenville, where district officials said their campuses made gains in this year’s ratings.
The annual grades are closely watched well beyond school district offices.
Parents often use them when deciding where to send their children. School performance can also factor into decisions by businesses considering where to invest or relocate, with highly rated schools viewed as an indication that more students will leave the classroom prepared for college or the workforce.
Texas bases its school and district ratings largely on three measures: student performance on the STAAR exam and college and career readiness benchmarks, improvement on state tests over time and how well schools educate underserved students.
But the A-F system remains controversial, particularly when poor ratings lead to state intervention.
Texas schools that trigger takeovers tend to serve predominantly Black, Latino and low-income students. Last year, majority-Black schools received more F ratings than A ratings.
Critics say the grades do not adequately account for the challenges confronting high-poverty campuses, which often have fewer resources while educating students with greater needs. They argue reducing a school’s performance to a letter grade can leave families with an incomplete picture of what is happening inside a campus.
Supporters counter that parents deserve a straightforward measure of how well schools are educating their children. State leaders have also argued the ratings help identify districts that have failed to keep student learning at the center of their work.
The debate is taking on added significance as parents have more options outside their traditional neighborhood schools.
This school year marks the first time Texas families can use taxpayer dollars to help fund private schooling or home-school education. That gives families another alternative as they weigh public school performance and decide where their children will be educated.
For most schools, Friday’s ratings will serve primarily as an annual measure of academic progress. For campuses with years of failing grades, they can carry much higher stakes.
