Over a month after Dallas ISD trustees voted to join a lawsuit filed against the Texas Education Agency, a temporary injunction was granted by a Travis County court, blocking the release of new A-F accountability grades for Texas public schools.
A number of school districts across Texas joined together to sue Education Commissioner Mike Morath, after it was announced changes to the school accountability system would retroactively, and negatively, impact 2022-2023 scores.
“Dallas ISD believes in holding ourselves accountable, and we expect to meet and exceed high standards,” said Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde. “The new state A-F refresh will be applied retroactively after the test has been taken and a new school year has already begun. This does not reflect our district’s recent improvements, which currently outpace the state in many areas. Put simply, our test scores have gone up, but under the new system, our ratings are projected to decrease. This does not make sense.”
At the time of the 8-0 trustee vote, Dallas was the largest state school district to join the lawsuit.
Morath initially responded to the lawsuit by saying it was “without merit,” and the Texas Education Agency plans to appeal the injunction, the Dallas Morning News reports.
“This ruling completely disregards the laws of this state and for the foreseeable future, prevents any A-F performance information from being issued to help millions of parents and educators improve the lives of our students,” an agency statement read.
The A-F evaluation system indicates how every school district in the state performs on standardized tests, as well as improvements to academic achievement and preparedness for post-graduation life.
The new A-F criteria is anticipated to make it more difficult to score well in the graduation preparedness category.
Dallas ISD received a “B” for the 2021-2022 school year.
