No A-F grades for Texas schools

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News says Texas schools won’t receive A-F accountability grades after a judge granted a new order temporarily blocking them on Wednesday. A coalition of school districts sued over the system alleging the grades are invalid because they’re based on flawed STAAR tests. A trial on the case is set for February. Travis County Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle temporarily granted dozens of districts’ requests to prohibit Education Commissioner Mike Morath from publishing campus grades for last school year. Texas Education Agency officials plan to appeal the decision, agency spokesman Jake Kobersky said.

The grades are based largely on how well students perform on the STAAR tests. This is the second year in a row some districts sued to block the grades’ release. The current lawsuit alleges grades released by the state would be invalid. The suit questions the use of computers to score students’ essays on the assessment. Large numbers of students scored zeroes on their written answers last year. “During the 2023–24 school year, the Commissioner radically changed the way the new STAAR test is being administered by replacing human graders with AI grading,” their lawsuit states. “This change was made without ensuring that this radical change would not impact the new STAAR test’s validity and reliability.” Morath has repeatedly defended the A-F system as valid and critical to students’ success. Supporters of the system argue families need to know how their local schools are performing and school leaders need to know where to direct resources. Some school district leaders in North Texas, including those in Dallas ISD, released their projections for how schools would perform on A-F, saying it was important to remain transparent with families.