The ratings were released April 24 after a two-year delay. The state agency could not release the ratings sooner because of a lawsuit involving more than 50 districts, including Frisco ISD as well as local districts Prosper ISD, McKinney ISD, Richardson ISD and Dallas ISD.
TEA is prevented from sharing more recent school ratings from the 2023-24 school year due to a separate, ongoing lawsuit. School performance ratings from the 2024-25 school year are scheduled to be issued in August 2025.
“Accountability is important, we want to ensure our students are learning and growing, and we take that responsibility seriously,” Frisco ISD Superintendent Mike Waldrip said in an April 24 district release. “But our district and campuses are more than a letter grade. The state ratings are just one snapshot. They don’t capture the full picture of student success in Frisco ISD.”
Sorting out details
In FISD, all campuses received an A or B campuses except for three, which received a C designation—Christie, Rogers and Shawnee Trail elementary schools.
How we got here
A-F ratings were first issued for Texas public school systems in 2018. No ratings were issued for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ratings were released in 2022, but were impacted by pandemic-related learning disruptions and a state law that prevented D and F ratings from being issued, according to the TEA.
For the 2022-23 set of ratings, the methods of calculating A-F scores were updated to more accurately reflect performance, as part of a previously communicated system refresh, according to an April 24 TEA news release.
FISD officials joined the 2023 lawsuit against the TEA over its failure to adequately notify school districts on the changes made to the way accountability ratings are calculated.
The lawsuit was based on Texas Education Code 39.0542, district legal counsel said. Per the statute, the commissioner is required to provide school districts with a “simple, accessible” document explaining the accountability performance measures, methods and procedures that will be applied to their campus performance ratings.
The district did receive this document, but district leaders said it contained the previous standards and not the new system that would be used.
The initial lawsuit was seeking one of two options for the accountability scores:
- For the commissioner to issue ratings for the 2022-23 school year and the 2023-24 school year using the existing system
- For the commissioner to issue no ratings for the two school years
“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,” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said in an April 24 news release. “Every Texas family deserves a clear view of school performance, and now those families finally have access to data they should have received two years ago. Transparency drives progress, and when that transparency is blocked, students pay the price.”
One more thing
Frisco ISD officials created an accountability system for the district several years ago. The district improvement plan serves as a local accountability system and its purpose is to work toward improvement efforts through the school year.
After goals are set by the school board, a committee of central office staff develop strategies and action plans to make progress in the goals throughout the year.
