Round Rock ISD officials expect to maintain accountability grade pending system updates

Round Rock ISD officials expect to maintain the district's B letter grade in the Texas Education Agency's annual accountability rating system, amid both a refresh of the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness and how accountability ratings are calculated.

In a nutshell

Adjustments to criteria, including new cutoff points for Student Achievement scores, have made it more difficult to achieve higher ratings across metrics, RRISD Chief of Schools and Innovation Natalie Nichols said during a Sept. 14 meeting.

The district has previously received A and B ratings as a whole, based on scores in the 90s and high 80s. With these new cutoff points to qualify for a score of 90, or A, Nichols said RRISD is projecting a score of 87, based on initial TEA methodology and data available to the district. This potential score is two points lower than the previous year's score of 89 and maintains the B the district received for the 2021-22 school year.

Nichols noted this projection is subject to change as the TEA re-evaluates the methodology behind its rating system.

What parents should know

A large-scale update to the methodology behind the calculation of accountability ratings for Texas public schools using an A-F system, accompanied by a refresh of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, was previously expected to be released Sept. 28.

Now, the TEA is revisiting this updated methodology with a release of updated ratings based on data from 2022-23 expected in October.

This comes as school districts across the state filed suit against the TEA, citing an unfairness in how those methodologies were applied retroactively to this data. In the suit, Texas school district officials allege the state effectively "moved goal posts" for the calculation of this rating without giving educators opportunity to work toward these new standards.