Dallas ISD Gets ‘C’ Rating in Newly Released District Accountability Rating

After two years of legal debate, the Texas Education Agency has released the academic accountability ratings for each public school district in the state for the 2022-2023 school year.

As predicted by Dallas ISD officials last year, the district received a C on the A-F scale. In the 2021-2022 school year, Dallas ISD scored a B, although the scoring was incomplete due to COVID-19. In the 2018-2019 school year, the last full year before the pandemic disrupted schools, Dallas ISD received a B.

Due to ongoing litigation, scores from the 2023-2024 school year have not been released. Rankings for the current school year will come out in August of this year. In a press conference earlier this week, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath warned that parents may want to wait until this summer to begin scrutinizing their district’s ratings, as the newly released grades could now be out of date for some districts.

“It’s an unfortunate fact that we’ve been stymied by what is ultimately frivolous litigation for the better part of two years, that parents have been denied access to this information,” Morath said.

The A-F scale indicates how every public school district in the state performs in standardized testing, overall academic achievement and student preparedness for post-graduation life.

Dallas ISD trustees voted unanimously in 2023 to join a 120-district lawsuit stopping the release of that year’s accountability grades. The lawsuit claimed that retroactive changes made by TEA would negatively impact their scores, and that TEA officials overstepped their authority by changing the district grading system after the school year had ended.

“Dallas ISD believes in holding ourselves accountable, and we expect to meet and exceed high standards,” Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie S. Elizalde said in a statement at the time. “But we should know ahead of time the expectations and rules. Instead, the new state A-F refresh will be applied retroactively after the test has been taken and a new school year has already begun.”

According to the newly released data, 47 schools in Dallas ISD earned an A in 2022-2023. Seventy-four were given a B, while 66 scored a C. Thirty-seven schools received a D, while 8 earned the lowest rating, F.

Last August, Dallas ISD officials released projected accountability ratings, which estimated 24 “F” rated schools across the district. A spokesperson for Dallas ISD told the Observer the district plans to release a statement on the latest rating in the coming days.