TEA accountability ratings: 31 Central Texas school districts saw improved scores

TEA releases accountability ratings

The accountability ratings for public schools in Texas are out. The Texas Education Agency released two years worth of data

AUSTIN, Texas - The accountability ratings for public schools in Texas are out.

The Texas Education Agency put out its annual report card for Texas school districts, giving them an A-F score. These letter grades provide insights into how Texas schools are performing.

Central Texas districts

Local perspective:

FOX 7 Austin has broken down the ratings for 52 school districts in the following counties: Bastrop, Bell, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Comal, Fayette, Gillespie, Gonzales, Hays, Kendall, Lee, Llano, Milam, Travis, and Williamson.

The districts are then sorted into three categories: Improved, Declined, and No Change, and then listed in alphabetical order. You can also click on each district to be taken to their individual TEA page.

Improved

31 Central Texas school districts saw an improvement in their ratings from the 2023-24 school year to the 2024-25 school year.

18 of those saw a small change, typically between one and five points, while 13 saw large jumps in ratings, often an entire letter grade or even two.

One district, Bartlett ISD in Bell County, jumped from an F to a C, while another, Florence ISD in Williamson County, went from a D to a B.

However, the biggest jump was in Waelder ISD, which saw a 26-point increase from an F to a B.

The districts that improved by a full letter grade or two are in bold.

Declined

13 school districts saw a drop in their scores from the 2023-24 school year to the 2024-25 school year.

Most dropped by a couple of points at most, while two (Granger ISD and Lockhart ISD in bold) saw a decline by an entire letter grade.

No Change

Eight school districts saw no change in their scores from 2023-24 to 2024-25.

By the numbers:

In Central Texas, about 60% of school districts saw an improvement in their scores from year to year, with 25% seeing large improvements of one or two letter grades.

About 25% saw drops in their scores, but only two, or 0.04%, saw a significant decline.

Looking at the state as a whole, 24% of districts and 31% of schools improved their letter grade from 2023-24 to 2024-25.

Only a relatively small percentage of schools saw a decline in their rating, about 15%.

How are districts and schools scored?

Dig deeper:

The TEA says that district ratings are meant to measure how much students are learning in each grade and whether they are ready for the next grade.

Overall grades for districts are calculated using a proportionality method that determines how much each campus grade impacts the district rating based on the number of students enrolled in grades 3-12 at each campus, says the TEA.

After determining each campus's domain score and weight, the district domain score is calculated by adding the points earned by each campus.

The overall rating is then based on the performance of the three key areas or domains by using the higher score between how much students know (Student Achievement) or how much better students are doing than last year or than peers in similar schools (School Progress).

The TEA also considers whether performance gaps exist among different groups of students (Closing the Gaps).

The Source: Information in this report comes from the Texas Education Agency