After statewide school boards and administrators called for a complete repeal of Texas’ original A-F accountability rating system, legislators approved House Bill 22, creating a revised version late in the Legislature’s special session, which ended Aug. 15.
The revision reduces the number of domains rated with a letter grade of A, B, C, D or F from five to three and requires State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, scores to account for less than 50 percent of accountability metrics at the high school level, said Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood.
“Rather than repeal the A-F system, or leave it as-is, the Legislature worked to revise the system to improve it before it ever took effect," said Taylor, who is chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
The original system—passed by the Legislature in 2015—rated five domains: student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps, postsecondary readiness, and community and student engagement. The revamped system measures student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps.
In January, Cy-Fair ISD’s board of trustees unanimously approved a resolution to urge legislators to repeal the original A-F system altogether.
At the time, Superintendent Mark Henry said he believed the system oversimplified the achievements and programs of each individual campus.
The system was to be implemented in the 2017-18 school year. However, the revision has pushed the rollout back by a year. Districts will receive ratings in August 2018, and schools will receive ratings in August 2019.
Another major difference provided by HB 22 allows school districts to develop their own local accountability systems, Taylor said. These are to be used in conjunction with the state-mandated domains, and districts will be able to rate their own campuses, he said.
Once an accountability plan is approved by the Texas Education Agency, districts and charter schools can develop additional domains and indicators. Each campus will receive an overall letter grade of A-F.
Training sessions and committee meetings to discuss options and issues related to the new system will be held through early spring 2018, prior to districts receiving their letter grades in August 2018.
While the original system was met with negative feedback from local school districts, legislators did not want to rid the state of a rating system altogether, Taylor said.
“Most legislators felt that a properly-designed A-F system is the most transparent and informative system for parents, students, and the community,” he said.