The Houston Independent School District reported that about 150 campuses received higher ratings in the Texas Education Agency’s 2024 annual accountability assessments compared to the unofficial 2023 assessments.
After outlining district-wide scores last week, HISD’s state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles, division Superintendent Orlando Riddick and other district leaders presented unofficial individual campus-level results of the Texas Education Agency’s 2024 Annual Accountability Assessments on Monday at Hilliard Elementary School.
The district previously reported that 41 schools received a D or F grade in the 2024 preliminary assessment, down from 120 in the 2023 unofficial assessment, while the number of schools with A and B grades increased from 93 to 170. Nine HISD campuses received a D or F in 2022, before the most recent overhaul of the state’s accountability system.
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Of the 264 schools that were evaluated, the district reported that 193 schools had improved their grades, 18 schools maintained their grades and 53 schools had dropped their grades compared to last year’s informal evaluations. A total of 149 schools that were evaluated had improved their grades from last year, 29 schools had dropped their grades and the remaining 86 schools’ grades remained the same, according to a Chronicle analysis.
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HISD reported that 59 schools received an A, 111 received a B, 53 received a C, 30 received a D and 11 received an F. Miles said three of HISD’s campuses — Wainwright, Hilliard and Hobby elementary schools — moved up from an F to an A and seven schools moved up from a D to an A. Miles said 21 schools moved up from an F to a B and 26 schools moved up from a D to a B.
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“We are extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish this past year,” Miles said in a media release. “Across the district, schools have made significant gains in student achievement on state assessments, and working with our dedicated teachers, principals and everyone in HISD, we will continue to build on this growth and provide high-quality instruction.”
The TEA typically assigns a grade between A and F each year to each public school district and campus based on standardized test performance, student growth and progress in closing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps, but has not done so for all campuses since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and legal challenges.
Official ratings give families, district leaders, and other community members a way to evaluate their local schools and districts, and also serve as a trigger for state takeover of a district if a school repeatedly receives failing ratings. HISD must ensure that all of its schools do not receive consecutive D or F ratings in order to end state takeover and reinstate its elected board.
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The department was scheduled to officially release the scores for the 2023-24 school year on Aug. 15, but a judge temporarily blocked the release after several school districts sued, arguing that the Texas assessments were unfair because they used an automated computer system to score essays and were poorly designed.
While the TEA cannot directly release the ratings, it has provided districts with baseline data for the 2023-24 school year so they can calculate and publish their own accountability ratings. HISD joins Dallas and Garland ISD as the only districts in the state to make their scores public.
The Dallas Independent School District did not release its 2023 ratings, but the Dallas Morning News reported that about 45% of its campuses received an A or B and about 29% received a D or F on the 2024 assessments. HISD data showed that 63% of its schools received an A or B and 16% received a D or F on the assessments that year.
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Under the new grading system, the percentage of schools in the Dallas Independent School District that received a D or F grade would triple between 2022 and 2024, from 9% to 29%, while in HISD the percentage of schools that received a failing grade would increase five-fold, from 3% to 16%.
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The TEA last year updated how it calculates the ratings, which was expected to lower statewide scores compared to scores in 2022. Among other changes, the agency raised the bar for high schools to demonstrate college readiness and phased out certain industry certifications that schools could use.
But more than 100 school districts won a lawsuit arguing the TEA didn’t provide enough advance notice of the changes, meaning the agency will not be able to issue grades based on the new formula in 2023 and has not officially issued any scores since the grade calculation change.
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Despite the lawsuit, HISD, unlike other large urban school districts in Texas, released unofficial grades for all campuses in January for 2023, using TEA methodology and data. HISD required its 26 schools that received an F or a low D on the unofficial grades to join the new education system during the next school year.
The district reported a decrease in the number of schools with D and F grades compared to 2023, after seeing gains of several percentage points on this year’s Texas Academic Readiness Assessments in reading and math despite a significant drop in average performance statewide.
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