PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Pflugerville ISD (PfISD) earned its highest state accountability ratings in 5 years, and the district now boasts zero F-rated campuses.

The district now has an overall grade of a B on the Texas Education Agency’s A-F scale after improving 11 campus scores by at least one letter grade.

Timmerman Elementary School jumped three letter grades in a single school year, improving from an F to a B rating.

Superintendent Quintin Shepherd says the progress has been a district-wide effort.

“We know that this is not by accident. This is not something that’s luck. This is a system that has been designing and redesigning itself for years and years and years leading up to this moment,” he said. “And now we’re seeing that success come to life across the district.”

In addition to collecting data and tracking student progress, Shepherd said PfISD has put a particular emphasis on its campus leadership and teachers.

“If you were to look over the course of the last five years, we’ve had an over 700% increase in the number of teachers who are TIA designated,” said Shepherd. “So what that means is we have the best quality teachers in our classrooms across the district, which ensures that we can offer our parents and our students an unprecedented level of education.”

ALSO| Community members revisit AISD partnership plan as grades point to state intervention

TIA, or Teacher Incentive Allotment, is a state designation awarded to teachers based on their effectiveness in producing measurable student growth.

“The other thing that we’ve prided ourselves on for years and years and years is being at the top end of the salary schedule compared to other Central Texas districts in the area,” said Shepherd. “Amongst the other big districts, especially Leander and Round Rock and Austin, we want to be one of the—if not the— highest paid districts in the area so that we can recruit the top talent and then retain that top talent as well.”

Can Pflugerville’s progress be modeled in other districts?

One of the most notable measures of progress in PfISD’s ratings this year was the absence of any F-rated campuses.

Meanwhile, in nearby Austin ISD, two middle schools just received their fifth consecutive F, opening the pathway for potential state intervention.

Austin ISD and Pflugerville ISD have the exact same overall rating from the TEA, with a B-level score of 81.

Although Austin ISD has nearly 44,000 more students, the districts have similar student demographics and measured student performance.

They are also both closing several campuses in their respective districts due in part to declining enrollment and high operational costs.

Dr. Lori Taylor, a professor at Texas A&M University who studies school finance issues, explains that consolidations are a cost-saving measure that many districts are choosing to take.

“Districts where enrollments are declining lose revenue from the state because they’re an average daily attendance,” she said. “But their costs don’t necessarily go down if they’re trying to maintain the same number of classrooms and the same number of schools. In order to be able to reduce costs to match up with your reduced revenues, you’ve got to have fewer personnel. And at some point, fewer personnel means fewer buildings.”

With Austin ISD still chasing the zero-F campus goal, Dr. Taylor explains how a state takeover of the district might complicate matters in terms of revenue.

“Any time the students leave for any reason, whether it’s takeover-related or not, you’re going to observe less total revenue to the district…” Taylor said. “All of your costs are largely the same, but your revenue is going to be lower.”

When asked if state intervention would be effective in Austin ISD, she said that remains to be seen.

“There isn’t as much research as I would like to see on the effectiveness of the closures,” she said. “What we do know is that a persistent failure [of schools] is failing a generation of kids… whether or not the state stepping in will cure that problem is the open question.”

AISD also saw improvements in this year’s accountability ratings. Since 2024, the district reports that the number of campuses receiving an A or B increased by 42%, and the number of campuses receiving a D or F decreased by 35% in that same time period.

However, 20 campuses in the district still received an F. State intervention in Austin ISD has not been initiated yet, but districts have 30 days to appeal their ratings to the TEA before scores are made final in December.

When asked what his advice for other districts was, Shepherd said, “Start with the recognition that your teachers and principals are the greatest assets that we have in our schools…Secondly, it’s to build understanding in the community for the financial situation.”

He says seeing improvements won’t come without making difficult choices, such as closing campuses.

“If we want to make the academic gains, if we want to maintain the academic gains, these are the trade-offs we have to make in order to ensure those continue to happen,” he said. “Be very honest and forthright with your community. Be transparent. And then focus again on the instructional improvement. Invest in the resources in the classroom.”