Texas’ A-F school accountability grades can be released, court rules

Texas can release the 2023 A-F academic accountability grades for schools after a court ruling on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by several districts, including Dallas.

The decision by the 15th Court of Appeals clears the way for school ratings for 2023 to be released by the Texas Education Agency, which hasn’t issued ratings in five years due to lawsuits and COVID-19 limitations.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick applauded the decision in a news conference after the opinion was released, calling it a “a big day for parents.”

“Now every parent will know, just like they know on their child’s report card how the child is doing, how their school is doing. Will it be an A, B? Will it fall to an F?” Patrick said. “This is one of the best tools to create competition and excellence.”

Texas’ A-F accountability system evaluates each public campus and district across the state, giving families a feel for how their local campuses are performing. They are largely based on how students perform on the STAAR test and how well schools prepare them for life after high school.

In 2023, Dallas ISD joined other districts in challenging TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, alleging changes to scoring methods for college, career or the military readiness would unfairly give campuses lower marks.

Morath has defended the state’s methodology for grading schools.

“This ruling is an important victory and restores a transparent lens in 2023 district and campus performance. Yet, there is still a second lawsuit that denies parents and the public access to 2024 accountability ratings,” TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky said in a statement. “TEA remains hopeful that the best interests of students, families and communities will prevail in this second suit.”

He added that TEA will share information on the release of the 2023 ratings soon.

Dallas ISD officials said they had no comment Thursday.

The court’s decision comes as the Legislature debates creating a state-funded private school voucher-like program, citing the decline of some public schools as the reason to allow parents to send their kids elsewhere with taxpayer money. School choice is one of Patrick’s top priorities for the Texas Senate, and the marquee issue for Gov. Greg Abbott.

State law requires the TEA to release annual A-to-F performance ratings for Texas public schools.

From 2020 to 2021, ratings weren’t released due to the effects COVID-19. In 2022, low ratings weren’t released for the same reason.

Ratings were blocked by temporary injunctions in 2023 and 2024 in response to lawsuits.

The 2024 lawsuit is pending after a Travis County judge last year blocked the release of that year’s ratings. The lawsuit from a handful of districts alleges the grades would be invalid because they’re based on results from flawed STAAR tests. The school officials questioned the use of computers to score students’ essays on the assessment.

 A group that advocates for transparency in school district ratings cheered the opinion and said they hope it sets a precedent for the second suit as well.

“Today is a victory for transparency, for accountability and most importantly, for Texas students,” Good Reason Houston CEO Cary Wright said in a statement. “With this decision, we take a crucial step toward ensuring every family, every educator and every community has the information they need to build stronger schools. But our work is not done.”

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.