Adam Garcia, 12, shares a laugh with friends during lunch at a summer camp at Dobie Middle School in Austin, Wednesday, July 30, 2025. The Promise Neighborhood Summer Camp, organized by Austin Voices for Education, is an educational day camp for students of Dobie, Burnet and Webb Middle Schools which are in a state-required turnaround plan. Next year, a new nonprofit partner will run the three campuses.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin Independent School District trustees voted Thursday to let nonprofit Texas Council for International Studies, which runs schools with International Baccalaureate or IB programming, take over operations at three North Austin middle schools.
All three schools — Dobie, Burnet and Webb middle schools — have struggled to meet state academic standards for multiple years. One more failed rating at any of the schools could put the entire school district in jeopardy of a state takeover.
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In hopes of turning scores around, Austin ISD will partner with TCIS in an 1882 partnership, which is a state agreement that allows school districts to give control of a campus to a nonprofit, charter operator, university or other approved entity for academic, financial and innovative benefits. One special perk of the 1882 partnership is that campuses can “pause” their state accountability ratings to allow greater time for academic improvement.
The three middle schools have faced upheaval since April 2025, when Superintendent Matias Segura told campus staff and families that the campuses had three F ratings in a row. They now have four Fs each. The Texas Education Agency required that the schools undergo a significant overhaul of staffing and operations, a process called a turnaround, Segura said.
TCIS already has campuses in San Antonio and Longview ISDs. The nonprofit typically offers IB programming, which tends to focus on teaching middle and high school students globally-minded academic programming and is often compared to Advanced Placement or other college preparation courses.
The nonprofit has a history of taking over campuses and improving their state-issued letter grade in just a couple of years. In 2025, four of the 15 campuses operated by TCIS scored an A, four a B, three a C, one a D and three an F.
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Board members unanimously approved the agreement with high praise for TCIS.
Trustee Kathryn Whitley Chu said Thursday that TCIS is the right partner for the three middle schools. Whitley Chu was especially supportive because TCIS plans to omit a step other 1882 partners frequently take — replacing campus staff already working at the school.
“Getting with a partner who would throw away all the good things that we have is not what we want to do,” Whitley Chu said. “The Texas Council for International Studies is going to bring in an extra layer of support to all the good stuff. Those schools have gone through so much upheaval.”
The agreement requires TCIS to find a technical partner that will visit the schools monthly and advise the nonprofit. In previous board meeting materials, the district had named this partner as Education Service Center Region 1, which is one of 20 centers across the state that support school district operations.
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However, the agreement passed Thursday didn’t name a technical partner. Naming ESC Region 1 may have been a premature move, said Joshua Jeon, executive director of board services and intergovernmental relations. The service center could still provide technical support, but TCIS and AISD will choose a partner collaboratively, Jeon said.
According to the contract, TCIS will also partner with Austin Voices for Education and Youth, a nonprofit that provides social supports in Austin schools that serve predominantly low-income students. The nonprofit already works with families at Dobie, Burnet and Webb middle schools.
TEA officials still have to approve the partnership, and Austin ISD may not get final approval until May or June, Segura told trustees Thursday. If approved, the TCIS contract at the three campuses will run through June 30, 2029.
The academics
TCIS will have control of academics at the campuses, but students will have access to the same extracurricular programs already offered at other AISD middle schools, according to the contract between the district and nonprofit.
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While TCIS is known for implementing IB programming, the schools won’t immediately have a full slate of that type of programming. Instead, the contract proposes all three schools will apply to be recognized as IB schools in the 2028-29 school year.
Because Bryker Woods Elementary School has IB curriculum, the school’s parent-teacher association will volunteer to support the three North Austin middle schools. This support could include field trip funding, mentoring or hosting IB programming at the schools. Anderson High School, which also has IB curriculum, could also provide support, according to the contract.
Austin ISD aims for all three middle schools to receive a D or C rating in 2027 and score at least a C by 2028. Texas rates schools on an A-F scale, largely based on the results from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, tests.
AISD could terminate the contract if any of the schools get an F next year. However, there are far more existential consequences for the district itself if academic performance continues to lag.
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If a school receives five F ratings in a row, Texas requires that the education commissioner either shut down the struggling campus or take over the entire district by replacing the superintendent and elected board members.
In approving the 1882 partnerships, Austin ISD officials are taking advantage of a state law that provides additional funding for schools and puts an academic “pause” on rating the campuses, meaning districts have more time to improve academics.
Family hope
Some families who attended a March 11 public meeting about the proposed partnership at Dobie weren’t sure if the IB model would be better for students.
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Rodolfo Manzano, a Dobie father, is happy the school didn’t end up closing. In April 2025, it seemed like that might happen. Manzano also likes the idea of more investment in the schools. But it’s too early for him to tell what TCIS and the IB model will mean for the school.
“Let’s just focus and we’ll see how the 1882 works,” he said. “It has to work out better than the situation right now. It has to work.”
Either way, he still plans to support the school, he said.
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The district has used an 1882 partner before at another middle school. Since 2018, the charter operator Third Future Schools ran Mendez Middle School. In 2023, the school scored a B, and this year, Austin ISD will take back control of the East Austin campus.