San Antonio’s largest school districts are taking a wait-and-see approach to a lawsuit blocking the Texas Education Agency from releasing A-F ratings.
Officials with Northside, North East, and San Antonio ISD said they have no plans to join the lawsuit, but they also have no plans to release their schools’ preliminary ratings of their own accord, as recommended by organizations like the Commit Partnership in Dallas.
Dallas ISD and Houston ISD have both released their estimated ratings.
A handful of San Antonio districts have followed suit, but most are waiting for the court to decide if TEA can release the official letter grades.
IDEA Public Schools and Southside ISD posted their preliminary A-F ratings online. Southwest ISD and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City told their school boards what to expect, but haven’t officially released them.
SCUC spokesperson Ed Suarez told TPR his district doesn’t plan on joining the lawsuit but “they fully support the principles underlying the legal challenge.”
SAISD spokesperson Laura Short said her district is waiting for the validity of the ratings to be determined by the courts.
“The ratings are not being released until the validity is determined,” Short said in an email. “We remain focused on student achievement, and therefore, our schools continue to use the results to improve student performance. Even without the ratings, the data still helps guide this very important work.”
North East ISD spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor said NEISD “typically would not release unofficial data.”
In a recent op-ed for the San Antonio Express News NEISD Superintendent Sean Maika said the state accountability system should be modified to “better reflecting the diverse ways students learn and demonstrate knowledge.”
Officials from Northside said the newly redesigned STAAR test should first be independently validated as required by law. The districts who filed the lawsuit against TEA make the same argument.
“Historically, when TEA transitioned to a redesigned test, no accountability ratings were assigned during the adjustment year to ensure alignment with the new rigor,” Northside officials said in a statement.
The statement also pointed to several changes to the state standardized test and the accountability calculations that “present considerable challenges to Texas school districts,” including the shift from multiple choice to written responses, the use of new rubrics, keeping the same cut points for grades while switching to a more rigorous test, and using computers to grade written responses.
Somerset ISD spokesperson Natalie Martinez also said her district is waiting for the official results.
“We have publicly provided our subject and grade level scores to the board and staff, including comparisons from prior year and are pleased with performance outcomes,” Martinez said in an email. “We will wait for the official state release to provide the actual ratings, ensuring that what is communicated comes directly from the Texas Education Agency’s reporting system.”
Alamo Heights ISD officials said they rely on their community-based accountability system — not the state’s A-F accountability ratings.
“Although STAAR data is one piece of the data we analyze in our efforts of continuous improvement, in AHISD, we are accountable to our community for so much more,” AHISD officials said in a statement. “We will not be joining the lawsuit because our local CBAS holds us accountable to much higher standards than the A-F accountability system.”
