Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune
“Texas Education Agency to release schools’ 2024 performance ratings after court ruling” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
A state appeals court has ruled the Texas Education Agency can release its 2024 ratings of the state’s school districts, overturning a previous ruling in a legal battle that has stretched nearly two years.
Several Texas school districts had sued against the release of last year’s accountability scores over concerns about education officials rolling out an automated computer system to grade the state’s standardized tests.
On July 3, the 15th Court of Appeals — all Republicans appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott —granted the state approval to release the 2024 scores after doing the same for 2023 ratings in April. Previously, it ruled that TEA Commissioner Mike Morath did not overstep his authority when he changed the college readiness metrics that help determine schools’ performance ratings.
RELATED: Houston ISD gets C grade from TEA in delayed release of 2022-23 accountability ratings
This time, the court similarly found “no evidence” supporting claims that issuing the 2024 ratings went beyond the commissioner’s authority. In a written opinion, Chief Justice Scott Brister declared that “it is time for local courts to stop obstructing those policies,” while acknowledging how Texans rely on the accountability system to assess public school performance.
It was not immediately unclear when the state plans to release the 2024 scores.
Families have gone several years without a complete set of school ratings. Texas schools and districts did not get ratings at all in 2020 or 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And in 2022, Texas lawmakers spared schools with low ratings from releasing the scores or sanctioning them so they could recover from the COVID-19-related learning disruptions.
Here’s what you need to know:
The background: How Texas school districts should be graded for their performance has been a contention point for the last two years.
The state announced in 2023 that schools would need to meet stricter benchmarks to get a good rating on its accountability system, which grades them on an A-F scale. High schools can now only get an A if 88% of their seniors enrolled in college, pursued a non-college career or entered the military. That benchmark used to be at 60%.
The state says stricter benchmarks will mean schools will be required to better prepare students for life after high school. And while Texas school districts generally agree with the goal, they argued that the state is moving the needle too fast.
The ratings that public schools receive are also in part based on how their students do on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, an annual statewide standardized test that measures students’ understanding of state-mandated core curriculum.
Texas legislators required the TEA to redesign the STAAR test by 2023 so it could be administered almost entirely online and wouldn’t have so many multiple choice questions. Following the redesign, the TEA moved to use computers to grade students’ written answers.
Why Texas schools sued the first time: More than 120 school districts sought to block the release of 2023 performance ratings, arguing that the TEA had not given them enough notice before introducing stricter college readiness standards.
The ratings were initially held up when a Travis County judge sided with the school districts in October 2023. The appeals court ruling in April allowed the agency to share those school performance grades.
Texas law “requires the Commissioner to solicit input from school boards, administrators, teachers, and parents in establishing and implementing this system. But it also gives him broad discretion that, along with the general immunity from suit provided to all state officials, was intended to keep academic ratings ‘out of the courts,’” the court’s opinion in April read.
Why Texas schools sued a second time: In a second legal battle over the A-F rating system, Texas school district leaders questioned the validity of STAAR results since an automated system started scoring them last year. They say low scores on STAAR’s reading section are because of the new grading tool, not necessarily because of students’ skills or teachers’ performance.
As a result, school district leaders contended, the STAAR test cannot be trusted to produce fair grades of school districts’ performance. They said TEA needs to get a third party to review the test.
“The STAAR test itself, the changes were fairly radical this time around,” said Nick Maddox, an attorney representing the school districts. “The trend for all school districts is that scores have decreased fairly significantly. We believe that the issue is this test itself.”
But the court ultimately ruled against them. The court stated, in part, that districts showed no evidence demonstrating how automated scoring is invalid and unreliable.
It was immediately unclear whether the districts will seek to challenge the appeals court’s July 3 ruling allowing for the release of 2024 scores.
Why the A-F accountability system matters: Each school district and school every year is rated based on their students’ standardized test scores and academic growth. The TEA also looks at their progress on closing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps.
Parents rely on the rating system to see how successful school districts are in preparing their children and to decide where to enroll their kids.
For schools, a bad grade could mean big consequences. If a failing score leads to families leaving the district, that means less money for the school since state funding is tied to student attendance. Consecutive years with a failing grade could trigger a state takeover, like the one at Houston ISD.
Texas lawmakers’ response to the lawsuits: The Legislature this year proposed legislation to deter districts from using legal channels to challenge the ratings system. The bill would have also swapped the often-criticized STAAR test for three shorter tests given throughout the school year.
In the end, the proposal died in the last days of the 2025 state legislative session after the Texas House and Senate failed to agree on what they wanted out of the bill.
The Senate wanted to solidify the Texas Education Agency commissioner’s authority to set stricter standards for the ratings system. And to discourage schools from taking legal action again, the upper chamber’s version of the bill gave the education chief authority to appoint a conservator to districts that initiate lawsuits.
The House version, meanwhile, required the TEA to get approval from the Legislature before making major changes to the ratings system. And it left an avenue for districts to sue the TEA in the future, while setting up a fast-track court process so those lawsuits would not halt the release of the ratings.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/12/texas-school-accountability-ratings-lawsuit/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.