What are Texas’ A-F school grades, and why do they matter?

Texas parents still won’t get a fresh sense of how their kids’ school stacks up in the state’s A-F academic accountability system — at least for now.

The Texas Education Agency can’t release new public school ratings after a group of districts sued Commissioner Mike Morath over the validity of the system, which is largely based on STAAR scores. A Travis County judge granted a temporary restraining order Monday.

“During the 2023–24 school year, the Commissioner radically changed the way the new STAAR test is being administered by replacing human graders with AI grading,” the lawsuit states. “This change was made without ensuring that this radical change would not impact the new STAAR test’s validity and reliability.”

TEA officials are considering next steps. A hearing is set for Aug. 26.

This is the second year in a row that legal action has blocked the scores’ release. A coalition of districts sued Morath last year over changes to the formulas used to grade them on how well they prepared students for life after high school.

What is the A-F school rating system?

Texas’ A-F system grades every public school across the state, giving families a sense of how they are performing. The ratings often are a factor in how communities perceive their campuses, and parents consider the scores when deciding where to enroll their children.

States must have accountability systems in place for measuring public schools. Lawmakers created this A-F iteration in 2017.

How are districts graded?

The grades are based largely on standardized test scores. The state looks at three major categories for the grades: student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps.

“Student achievement” considers how children performed on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, tests. For high schools, it also weighs graduation rates and other metrics.

“School progress” factors in how much improvement students made year-over-year or how well they did in relation to comparable campuses. “Closing the gaps” looks at how schools do educating children in different groups, such as those living in poverty or receiving special education services.

Seventy percent of the grade is based on either student achievement or school progress — whichever is the higher grade — while closing the gaps makes up 30%.

Why are districts suing over computer use in STAAR?

The state quietly rolled out the use of computer scoring for student’s STAAR essay questions in December, along with other changes.

After that, many administrators noticed a large number of high schoolers scored zeroes on their written responses. Scores generated this way “threaten to unfairly — and unlawfully — lower the A–F ratings of many school districts and campuses,” the lawsuit states.

Now the latest lawsuit takes aim at the STAAR results. It argues that the commissioner can’t assign A-F ratings because the test isn’t “valid and reliable,” in part because of the computer scoring.

“It is our goal to invalidate the STAAR test that all students took across the state of Texas, and all resulting metrics built on that score as well,” said attorney Nick Maddox, who is working with the school districts.

What is the state’s response?

Education Commissioner Mike Morath defends the state’s methodology for grading schools.

“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,” agency officials said in a statement.

Agency officials stand by the automated grading system, saying it is not the same as the generative AI that powers programs such as ChatGPT. They described it as a tool with narrow abilities that improves efficiency and is as accurate as human scorers.

Why did Texas districts sue last year?

A major change was proposed for a key part of the high school evaluations: college, career and military readiness, or CCMR. In 2017, the state decided that, if 60% of graduates proved “CCMR ready,” the school earned the equivalent of an A. Since then, campuses made progress in this metric. The state proposed raising that standard to 88%.

The system also awarded schools for the number of students who leave high school with an “industry-based certification.” But the new rules would eliminate credit for some of the popular options, such as showing proficiency in Google Analytics.

Changes were expected to affect other data points as well, including by weighing scores differently based on campus size.

Morath previously said the system’s refresh was part of a five-year cycle. Updates are needed, he said, to make sure that schools are constantly working to improve outcomes for students.

District leaders argued the changes to the accountability formula were not made transparently and that districts didn’t have enough notice of the changes.

Under the revised formulas, districts expected their grades to drop even if student achievement had improved. Dallas Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde has said DISD could earn the highest number of D and F ratings in its history.

TEA acknowledged that campuses with A ratings in 2022 may have shown improvement in 2023 but still receive a B rating.

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, 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.