SAN ANTONIO – TEA ratings will be out in just a few hours, and many school districts are waiting to find out how they will rank.
There will be several schools keeping a close eye on those rankings, including Boerne ISD, which will be looking for its seventh straight A rating from the TEA. But let’s take a look at some of the other districts.
Other A ratings include BASIS schools, depending on the individual campus. In the B category, districts include New Braunfels ISD, Comal ISD, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD and Medina Valley ISD, to name a few.
These grades are based largely on three areas: STAAR performance and college and career readiness, academic growth over time, and how well schools are educating underserved students, according to The Texas Tribune.
Now, let’s take a look at two of the lowest-ranked school districts in our area.
They include Edgewood ISD with a D rating and Uvalde CISD with an F rating.
Those lower grades can have consequences beyond the report card. Texas Tribune reports that under state law, five consecutive failing ratings can lead to serious state intervention. The education commissioner must either close a persistently failing campus that reaches that threshold or replace the district’s elected school board with an appointed board of managers.
And this is an issue playing out across Texas. The Tribune reports at least five districts — Austin, Waco, Greenville, Ector County and Ralls — are currently nearing possible state intervention because of chronic academic underperformance.
The accountability system also has its critics. The Texas Tribune reports critics argue the ratings do not fully account for challenges facing high-poverty schools, while supporters say the grades give families transparency about how well schools are educating students.
Districts will have a chance to challenge their grades. According to The Texas Tribune, districts have until Sept. 11 to appeal their ratings to the Texas Education Agency.