A lawsuit filed earlier this week prevented the Texas Education Agency from releasing the grades for AF schools that were scheduled to be released Thursday, but school districts already have the STAAR test data that those grades are based on, and some have even released their own numbers.
The Dallas Independent School District said Thursday that preliminary scores show the number of high schools in the district that received A and B ratings “nearly doubled compared to our internal calculations for the 2023 ratings.”
The Dallas Independent School District also said it did not expect any high schools to fail and that it expects to have the most AC range in 2022 and beyond.
“Our board of trustees values transparency and accountability regarding the district’s performance, which is why we are making these internal calculations public,” Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said in a release on the district’s website.
Miguel Solis, president of the Dallas-based education nonprofit The Commit Partnership, called this week for school districts to release the AF data despite the lawsuit, but cautioned that comparisons to previous performance must be fair.
“None of the scores that are released this year can be compared to previous scores because it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison,” he told reporters during a webinar on Wednesday. “This really is a new starting point for them to be able to set a benchmark.”
Solis said last year’s AF results were also delayed due to another lawsuit, so new standards were set for this year’s performance.
TEA’s latest STAAR test is described as more rigorous, with new scores to determine AF rating.
The Dallas Independent School District said it expects a grade of C this year, with the school receiving 79 points compared with 76 points last year. The previous grade was a B.
Districts also know that schools will receive D and F grades.
“Nobody is ignoring reality,” School Board Chairman Joe Carreon said. “There’s a lot of work to be done, but I want to commend everyone who is working on it.”
The Dallas School District, the state’s second-largest school district, released its AF grades last week, following the Houston Independent School District, the state’s largest district.
In North Texas, Garland Independent School District, in addition to Dallas, also released projections Thursday with approval from the TEA.
Overall, the district is expecting a B grade and boasts that three of its seven high schools are now rated an A overall, compared to just one in the last evaluation.
The district also noted that Algebra 1 achievement improvement increased by 22 points, compared to a four-point increase statewide.
But some schools are struggling, and Garland Independent School District noted “targeted assistance plans that have been implemented to support those campuses.”
“I am extremely proud of our school district and our teachers,” said School Board Chairman Robert Selders Jr., “but I also recognize that we still have a lot of work to do.”
Meanwhile, other school districts are refusing to release their results, at least for now. The Fort Worth Independent School District told KERA it wouldn’t release its scores because of the litigation, but a spokesperson said the district has “successfully moved more campuses into A, B, and C grades, and also reduced the number of schools with Ds and Fs.”
The Richardson Independent School District said it will not release scores until the TEA releases statewide results.
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Have a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him at X @bzeeble.
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