Chris Paul / Houston Public Media
The Texas Education Agency is now permitted to publish its 2023 A-F school accountability ratings after an appeals court on Thursday lifted an injunction that had previously blocked their release.
Established in 2017, the TEA’s A-F accountability system evaluates schools and districts based on various performance indicators, like student scores on standardized exams and student preparedness for college. Parents can use the system to evaluate a potential school for their child, and the state can use a school’s “grade” to determine whether to intervene, as it did when the TEA took over Houston ISD, the state’s largest school district, in 2023 after a local high school received a string of failing ratings. The TEA removed the district’s elected trustees and installed state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles.
The rating system changed in 2023 to raise the thresholds for top ratings. The changes were intended to reflect the previous school year, meaning schools faced lower scores without having known about the criteria.
This led to a lawsuit from more than 120 Texas school districts, which argued that the TEA failed to provide sufficient notice before revising the state’s rating system. A Travis County judge blocked the release of the state’s 2023 school ratings shortly after the suit was filed.
However, Texas’ 15th Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned this decision. The court ruled that TEA commissioner Mike Morath has the authority to issue ratings, even if prior deadlines were not met. The state’s education code requires standards be adopted “at any time during a school year before the evaluation of a school district or campus.”
The court ruled that state law doesn’t give a “precise deadline for adoption or explanation of the ratings standards,” and that the TEA has “broad discretion regarding timing.”
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The state hasn’t released school ratings since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lingering lawsuits. In 2024, another group of school districts filed a separate lawsuit over the introduction of a computer system to grade the state’s standardized tests. This case led to another Travis County judge blocking the release of 2024’s school accountability ratings. Those results remain blocked.
In a statement, TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky said Thursday’s ruling “restores a transparent lens into 2023 district and campus performance” and added that the agency remained hopeful that it would prevail in the second lawsuit.
Lawyers representing the school districts did not respond to requests for comment.
On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick praised the court’s ruling, touting the state’s A-F school accountability system as “one of the best tools to create competition and excellence.”
Just days before the ruling on Thursday, Miles, HISD’s state-appointed superintendent, testified in favor of Senate Bill 1962, which would prohibit school districts from blocking the release of the annual ratings through legal challenges, allowing the TEA more power to revise its standards for districts. As of Thursday, the proposed bill had been referred to the Senate Education Committee.