These changes are a part of AISD’s proposed turnaround plans to restart Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools following two consecutive years of failed accountability ratings from the state.
The board is set to hold a public hearing and vote on the plans at its June 26 meeting ahead of a June 30 deadline from the Texas Education Agency. The district postponed the vote, which was originally scheduled for June 12, to allow for more time to receive community feedback and finalize the plans, said Jacob Reach, AISD chief of governmental relations, in an interview with Community Impact.
AISD will release three updated turnaround plans for each campus June 12, Reach said.
What’s happening
AISD officials have replaced campus administrators and some teachers as district officials work to implement the state’s Accelerating Campus Excellence, or ACE, model for underperforming campuses. The ACE model is used to restart struggling campuses through selecting new leadership and staff as well as using high-quality instructional materials, according to TEA information.
“ACE really allows us to build on the amazing work that [students have] already been doing while it's changing up some of the academic approaches and ensuring that academic excellence for the students,” Reach said.
In early May, AISD announced it would offer up to $20,000 in stipends to incentivize high-performing educators to teach at Dobie, Webb and Burnet. All current staff members were required to reapply for their jobs.
To remain at the campuses, teachers were required to be certified with at least three years of experience and demonstrate student growth in the top 20% of the district. According to AISD data, 68% of Burnet teaching staff were invited to return, followed by 57% of Webb teaching staff and 32% of teaching staff at Dobie.
Second-year Webb teacher Hannah Edgell said she learned she would no longer have a position at Webb during teacher appreciation week. At a May 12 community meeting, Edgell told Community Impact she did not know where she would be teaching next school year.
“I feel incredibly frustrated,” Edgell said. “I feel like I have lost faith in the current administration due to how late they were to respond to this and to the severity that they are responding seemingly out of nowhere.”
The district has proposed implementing extended school days with after-school enrichment for students. Teachers would have a longer work day once a week, Reach said. Bell schedules would shift from four 90-minute periods to five 70-minute periods, according to the proposed plan.
Students would receive instruction in literacy and math every day instead of every other day. The district is aiming to standardize its curriculum between classrooms and the three campuses, Reach said.
The plans—estimated to cost around $1.7 million per campus—would include hiring four content interventionists, two additional teachers, a counselor and a wellness counselor at each school. The expanded team of content interventionists will focus on supporting students who are English-language learners, Reach said.
Around 80.7% of students at Burnet, 78.6% of students at Webb and 72.1% of students at Dobie are English-language learners, according to AISD information. Edgell said Webb did not have enough support for English-language learner students who are required to begin taking the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, in English in sixth grade.
AISD would track student progress at these campuses through additional testing, including an interim STAAR in November, Reach said. If testing shows academic performance has not improved, the district may consider partnering with a charter school to manage these schools beginning in the 2026-27 school year, he said.
“We need to have that strong focus on ensuring that students are mastering their reading and writing skills and math,” Reach said. “That's the big focus, and that's what TEA will be looking at.”
What they’re saying
AISD held meetings to discuss the turnaround plans with Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle school communities in May. Many teachers, parents, students and community members said they did not want to see their campus leaders and teachers replaced.
“My reaction was really frustrated, aggravated [and] confused,” Webb parent Louisa Aguirre said. “Webb is really like a family for us.”
Webb student Samiyah Harvey said she has formed close bonds with her teachers and is proud of the recent accomplishments of her fellow classmates. Students at Webb, Burnet and Dobie staged walkouts during the school day to protest the removal of their teachers.
“I trust these people,” Harvey said about her teachers. “When I come here, I can talk to them. I’m not going to feel that way when I come back.”
“A large majority are against the whole concept of using this ACE model, and for many good reasons,” Leonard said. “It's a very arbitrary blanket that ends up removing a lot of very effective educators from our school. It's not something that's going to help our school grow next year.”
How we got here
Each school year, the TEA’s accountability system rates districts from A-F based on student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps for certain student populations, such as racial and socioeconomic groups. The ratings factor in STAAR scores; student preparedness for college, career and military service; and graduation rates.
The TEA released its ratings for the 2022-23 school year April 24 following a ruling from a state judge April 3. The release of the scores was stalled for two years after more than 100 school districts sued the TEA over changes to the A-F rating system.
Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools each received their second consecutive F rating in 2023. These campuses were last rated in 2019 as ratings were paused for multiple years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
AISD has projected that these campuses will receive failed accountability ratings in 2024 and 2025, Reach said. Litigation blocking the release of the 2024 scores is still pending, while the 2025 ratings are expected to be released Aug. 15, per state law.
If a campus receives a failed accountability rating five years in a row, the state could close the school or appoint a board of managers to oversee the district. In 2023, the TEA took over Houston ISD and installed a state-appointed board of managers in place of HISD’s elected school board officials.
In April, district officials discussed closing Dobie but changed course after many community members, staff and students spoke against the campus’s closure.
“The more aggressive the accountability system becomes in Texas ... the more aggressive our responses have to be,” school board President Lynn Boswell said at an April 24 press conference. “It is a matter at this point of saving our district, and the threat is not theoretical. We have seen what the state did in Houston, and we cannot let that happen in our district.”
At an April 10 meeting, AISD Superintendent Matias Segura said the district learned in March that it had less time to improve outcomes at Dobie than it originally anticipated.
“The timeline all of a sudden became very, very aggressive,” Segura said. “It really constrained our ability to do anything that really responded to what we were wanting to do.”
The TEA extended its deadline to receive AISD’s turnaround plan for Dobie from April 30 to June 30. Amid the pending litigation, the agency provided Texas school districts data and raw scores for certain accountability indicators in November 2023 and August 2024, according to TEA information.
“Districts have had the ability since these dates to calculate, anticipate and plan for potential 2023 and 2024 state accountability ratings, and accordingly, potential requirements of [targeted improvement plans] and [turnaround plans],” a TEA spokesperson said in a statement to Community Impact.
