Seven ISDs File Suit Over TEA’s Upcoming “A-F” Accountability Ratings Release
Seven Texas school districts filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking a temporary court order to block proposed changes to the A-F accountability system for campuses and districts from becoming final.
The lawsuit was filed in a Travis County district court by Austin attorney David Campbell against Education Commissioner Mike Morath on behalf of the Kingsville, Canutillo, Crowley, Del Valle, Edinburg Cons., Fort Stockton and Pecos-Barstow-Toyah districts.
The lawsuit seeks a court order to temporarily prevent the education commissioner from going ahead with adopting final 2023 A-F accountability rule changes that the districts say would negatively affect their ratings — to be based on their School Year 2022-23 performance — by using criteria that was not in place when the 2022-23 school year began.
- Note: The commissioner proposed — for public comment — the A-F rule changes to be included in the 2023 Accountability Manual on May 19, 2023. The proposed revisions, as of press time, had not been finally adopted. The announced targeted date for the public release of 2023 A-F ratings (based on School Year 2022-23 performance) is Sept 28, 2023.
The lawsuit argues that — based on timelines established in state law — the upcoming ratings release instead must be based on the criteria that was “finalized, published, and adopted” on Aug. 11, 2022.
The districts further argued that the planned ratings changes would result in them receiving lower ratings — in some cases from an A to a D — even though their performance, under the prior criteria, improved.
The lawsuit specifically seeks an injunction prohibiting (pending the outcome of a trial on the matter) the commissioner from issuing A-F ratings that are based on criteria that differ from what was in place as of the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.
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