A judge has once again blocked the Texas Education Agency from releasing accountability school rankings, after a nearly yearlong legal battle.
A judge on Monday blocked the Texas Education Agency from releasing statewide A-F accountability school rankings this week as planned. The order, issued by Travis County District Court Judge Karin Crump , stems from a lawsuit brought by school districts around the state that alleged standardized STARR tests underpinning the rankings were not properly designed and unfairly included the use of a new automated computer system to grade essay questions.
EARLY NUMBERS: Houston ISD sees number of D and F-rated schools drop by two-thirds in preliminary TEA scores The Texas Education Agency designs the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness that measures students’ performance and then uses the results to grade districts. The complete district A-F rankings have been on pause for the last five years amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a series of lawsuits. If campuses receive failing grades their districts can be sanctioned or even taken over by the state, similar to what happened in Houston ISD. “The Commissioner radically changed the way the new STAAR test is being administered by replacing human graders with AI grading. This change was made without ensuring that this radical change would not impact the new STAAR test’s validity and reliability,” said the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday. “In fact, it appears that AI grading has resulted in a test that is not ‘valid and reliable’ and cannot lawfully be used to assign A–F ratings for school districts and campuses.” Test results this year showed a sharp uptick in the number of zeroes scored on essay questions, prompting some critics to question whether the increase was due to the computer scoring. TEA has said the shift is unrelated to the new grading system and attributed the change to new scoring rubric and a higher test difficulty. The lawsuit is the latest brought by Nick Maddox, the same attorney who helped about 100 districts block last year’s A-F ratings. The plaintiffs in the latest lawsuit are a group of independent school districts, including Pecos-Barstow-Toyah, Crandall, Forney, Fort Stockton and Kingsville. “We believe that our arguments are valid. They obviously made sense to the judge and our sense of urgency because once you let the cat out of the bag and release those scores, it’s too late,” Maddox said. A spokesman for TEA said in an emailed statement that the agency is “reviewing the finding and will evaluate appropriate next steps.” “The A-F accountability system is good for kids. It is why the legislature adopted a strong A-F framework to help improve the quality of student learning across the state, give parents a clear understanding of how well their schools are performing and establish clear expectations for school leaders so they can better serve students,” the statement said. “It is disappointing that a small group of school boards and superintendents opposed to fair accountability and transparency have once again filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing A-F ratings from being issued and keeping families in the dark about how their schools are doing.” Last year, the districts argued that the TEA had unfairly increased standards in such a way that would depress school ratings, and a judge agreed to block the 2023 A-F scores. The TEA’s more rigorous formula raised the threshold for high schools to earn an “A” in college readiness, which is determined by the percentage of students who score well on Advanced Placement exams, obtain certain industry certifications or enlist in the military. Schools that previously earned the minimum college readiness score for an A in 2022 would receive a D in 2024. Despite the lawsuit, HISD released unofficial 2023 ratings for all of its campuses in January using the TEA’s methodology and data, which showed major drops in performance. The district then released its own updated ratings last week based on the 2024 recent test scores, showing a rebound from the 2023 results. HISD reported that 41 schools earned D or F ratings in 2024, down from 121 in the unofficial 2023 ratings, and the number of A- and B-rated schools increased from 93 to 170. In 2022, prior to the most recent overhaul of the state accountability system, 10 HISD campuses received Ds or Fs. Although last year’s ratings remain blocked by the courts, TEA had planned to move forward with rankings based on this year’s scores. Monday’s decision stops them from doing so. Crump temporarily blocked the state from issuing the A-F rankings while the case is litigated. The next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 26.
Texas Education Agency State Of Texas Assessments Of Academic Readiness COVID Karin Crump Nick Maddox STARR Forney Houston ISD Travis County Kingsville Crandall Fort Stockton Pecos-Barstow-Toyah 121 A-F Advanced Placement
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