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In a big win for supporters of accountability in the public school system, an appeals court has ruled that the Texas Education Agency can release its A-F ratings of schools and their districts for the 2023 year.
The release of these ratings had originally been blocked due to a lawsuit from multiple districts that claimed the system was unfair. The truth is, these ratings simply force districts to be accountable to both parents and taxpayers.
Erin Anderson with the Texas Scorecard said, "The judge said, ‘Your argument doesn’t really hold water.’ Now we’re just waiting for the TEA to actually put that data out publicly. I know they’ve had it for two years, so it shouldn’t take that long to upload it."
She then described the report cards, saying, "These report cards are done on both a campus level and a district-wide level, and it is an actual A-F grade that districts receive."
Anderson went on to say that these report cards never should have been blocked in the first place. According to her, "The whole point of creating these report cards was transparency and accountability. Hiding them from the public is in no way transparent."
She says as of right now, the A-F report cards for the 2024 school year are still being blocked from release due to another lawsuit that also alleges they’re unfair.