Texas Education Agency accountability ratings system

The Texas Education Agency accountability ratings system rates all public schools, charter schools, and school districts in the U.S. state of Texas.

Beginning in 2013, schools and districts receive one of three accountability ratings: "Met Standard", "Met Alternative Standard" or "Improvement Required", based on four indices, including student performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test. Schools and districts that receive "Met Standard" ratings are also eligible to receive one or more distinctions based on outstanding performance in specific areas of these indices.

In May 2015, the Texas legislature approved a plan to assign schools and districts "A-F" ratings that mimic a letter grade scale, with a goal of providing a simplified way to understand school performance. When TEA released preliminary school and school district ratings using the A-F system in January 2017, they were met with criticism; schools that rated very highly under previous rating systems received failing grades from the new system and opponents pointed out that simplified ratings correlate more strongly with poverty levels than other measures of school performance.

Note: This ranking system was last used in 2011. Texas schools are now ranked under a new system using performance on the STAAR Test and several other performance indexes.

Based on school or district performs, the school or district received one of four possible rankings: Exemplary (the highest possible ranking), Recognized, Academically Acceptable, and Academically Unacceptable (the lowest possible ranking). In rare instances, the category Not Rated: Other will be used.

According to the agency, the number of state schools and districts who received the top ratings of "exemplary" and "recognized" increased from 2,213 in 2005 to 3,380 in 2006 - a 52.73% increase over the previous year.

In order to receive an Exemplary rating, a school/district must meet all four of the following criteria:

The criteria are 75 percent pass rate on TAKS and SDAA II (again, required for all students as well as each subgroup), 85 percent on Completion Rate, and 0.7 percent on Dropout Rate.

The criteria are 60 percent on TAKS Subsections "Social Studies", "Reading/ELA", and "Writing", 40 percent on "Mathematics", which were an increase in standards in 2006 from 2005. Other minimum standards required to be met are 40 percent on "Science", 50 percent on SDAA II, 75 percent on Completion Rate, and 1.0 percent on Dropout Rate.

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