Public schools across the state were rated based on a variety of factors, including academic performance and how prepared students are for college and careers after high school.
Why now?
Ratings for the 2022-23 school year were delayed by lawsuits and released April 24 following an April 3 ruling in which the Texas 15th Court of Appeals overturned a 2023 injunction that prevented the accountability ratings' release for more than a year.
In September 2023, Hutto ISD joined more than 100 Texas school districts in a lawsuit aimed at preventing the release of these ratings, as changes in the methodology for how letter grades were calculated were made mid-school year.
At the time, several HISD trustees called the change to accountability ratings that would be applied to data for the the 2022-23 school year retroactively unfair, with trustee James Matlock calling it a "moving of goalposts."
"Commissioner [Mike] Morath is on record stating that there will be multiple campuses or districts statewide that have done better in their [State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness] score, but they have the chance of a decrease in score," Matlock said in 2023.
In a nutshell
The A-F rating system was created by the 85th Legislature to provide clear and consistent performance tracking data for public schools and ensure students are prepared for the next grade level. Per the TEA, the focus areas of student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps were intended to drive continuous improvement in public schools.
According to an April 24 release from the TEA, various factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and lawsuits, have left an incomplete set of ratings for families to understand how their public schools are serving students.
“For far too long, families, educators and communities have been denied access to information about the performance of their schools, thanks to frivolous lawsuits paid for by tax dollars filed by those who disagreed with the statutory goal of raising career readiness expectations to help students,” Morath said in the news release.
The 2022-23 updates to methodology were made to "more accurately reflect performance," according to the TEA.
In a letter shared with HISD families, Superintendent Jeni Neatherlin described the data informing the 2022-23 ratings as "old," and the district has taken steps to "improve instruction, raise expectations and increase accountability."
"These scores were based on a revised accountability system that was far more rigorous than in previous years," Neatherlin's said in the letter. "As a result, districts across Texas anticipated a decrease in ratings by an entire letter grade or more due to the changes. Ultimately, students and educators were not doing less, the bar had just been moved."
The breakdown
Statewide, about 11% of school districts received an A rating for the 2022-23 school year, 40% of districts earned a B, about 32% scored a C, 14% received a D, and about 3% received an F, according to the TEA.
At the campus level, in 2023, 1,646 campuses earned an A, 2,873 campuses scored a B, 2,107 campuses received a C, 1,264 campuses received a D, and 649 campuses scored an F, according to the TEA’s statewide summary report.
Out of the HISD campuses that received ratings:
- Six earned a C
- Four earned a B
- One earned a D
Texas school districts like HISD last received ratings through the A-F system in the 2021-22 school year. At that time, about one-third of districts earned an A rating for 2021-22, and just over half earned a B, according to prior reporting.
HISD did not receive a rating in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years due to state of disaster declarations stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the adjusted methodology, the district had earned a B in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 school years.
- 2018-19: B
- 2019-20: not rated due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- 2020-21: not rated due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- 2021-22: B
- 2022-23: C
The TEA remains blocked from releasing accountability ratings for the 2023-24 school year, due to another lawsuit from school districts across the state. The second lawsuit is pending a decision from a state appeals court, as reported by Community Impact.
In Hutto ISD, the release of the 2022-23 rating was not a catalyst for change. Rather, Neatherlin wrote in her letter, the district took student achievement data prior to the public release of the rating and used it to identify areas of needed improvement. Since then, the district has reported higher performance in math year over year, among other indicators of academic improvement.
"We will continue to use all data available, including the TEA rating, to evaluate our work and improve where needed," Neatherlin wrote. "But let me be clear: Hutto ISD is on the rise in academics and all areas of student life, and we will keep pushing forward to deliver the best possible outcomes for our students."
