{"id":411696,"date":"2026-08-20T08:34:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/411696\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T08:34:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:34:31","slug":"austin-isd-faces-potential-state-takeover-after-two-campuses-receive-fifth-failing-ratings-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/411696\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin ISD Faces Potential State Takeover After Two Campuses Receive Fifth Failing Ratings | Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two middle schools in Austin Independent School District (ISD) received their fifth failing A\u2013F accountability rating<\/a> from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the Texas Education Code<\/a> (TEC), \u201cIf a campus is considered to have an unacceptable performance rating for five consecutive school years, the commissioner shall order: (1) appointment of a board of managers to govern the school district; or (2) closure of the campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district originally had three middle schools with four consecutive failing ratings: Burnet, Dobie, and Webb. While Burnet and Webb earned F ratings, Dobie earned a D rating for this year.<\/p>\n

According to TEA<\/a>, a D rating does not break a consecutive failing streak \u2014 only an A, B, or C rating will stop the count. A D rating instead pauses the count until there are three D ratings in the chain, at which point the failing streak resumes.<\/p>\n

Over the past school year, Austin ISD has made headlines for numerous challenges. In November, the district approved<\/a> 10 school closures and 24 state-mandated turnaround plans for struggling campuses. After a projected $181 million budget deficit<\/a>, the district was forced to make $205 million in cuts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district also announced the last-minute closure<\/a> of Paredes Middle School on July 30, shortly before the start of the school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austin ISD applied for Senate Bill 1882 partnerships<\/a> for Burnet, Dobie, and Webb, which would have allowed the district to partner with an open-enrollment charter school or institutions of higher education approved by the TEA. These partnerships can receive increases in state funding and are exempt from certain accountability measures for two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Segura told<\/a> KXAN News that the accountability pause was \u201cnot the driving factor\u201d for the partnership, but rather the resources the partnership made available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The TEA denied<\/a> Austin ISD\u2019s request in May, but said that the district could continue the partnerships, just without the state incentives. Austin ISD announced the dissolution<\/a> of the partnerships for the three middle schools in July.<\/p>\n

In an August 13 letter<\/a> to parents, Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura addressed the possible state takeover, saying that \u201cchallenges remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the weeks ahead, Austin ISD may be at the center of public conversations, speculation, and news headlines,\u201d he wrote, adding that the district will \u201cface these realities head-on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Segura celebrated the district’s overall B rating, saying it is “starting the year with momentum” \u2014 an improvement over three consecutive C ratings.<\/p>\n

The Texan asked TEA Commissioner Mike Morath about the potential state takeover during an August 14 press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cRatings today are what we refer to as preliminary ratings,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s a 30-day window to apply for appeal, then there’s about 60 days where we have a third-party panel review and just check all the work, make sure it’s accurate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Morath emphasized that ratings can change, which is why it is \u201cway preliminary to discuss what actually might happen in Austin as a result of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Districts must submit rating appeals<\/a> by September 11, and final rating decisions will be issued prior to December 11, when final ratings are released to the public.<\/p>\n

Currently, seven districts are under the control of a state-appointed superintendent and board of managers<\/a>, and Shepherd ISD is under mixed governance as it returns to its elected board of trustees.<\/p>\n

Houston ISD<\/a> came under state control in 2023, with the takeover extended until 2027; La Joya ISD<\/a> in February 2024; and South San Antonio ISD in February 2025. Fort Worth ISD<\/a> has been under a state takeover since October 2025, and the TEA announced the takeovers of Beaumont, Lake Worth, and Connally ISDs<\/a> in December 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two middle schools in Austin Independent School District (ISD) received their fifth failing A\u2013F accountability rating from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[122753,132,134,1685,133,101054,2826,103834,8257,1686,143706,11906,6801,7395,96878,16529,6549,2810],"class_list":["post-411696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-a-f-accountability","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-isd","tag-austin-news","tag-beaumont-isd","tag-board-of-managers","tag-connally-isd","tag-fort-worth-isd","tag-houston-isd","tag-la-joya-isd","tag-lake-worth-isd","tag-matias-segura","tag-mike-morath","tag-south-san-antonio-isd","tag-state-takeover","tag-tea","tag-texas-education-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}