On Sept. 14, Richardson ISD trustees voted to adopt a resolution approving the administration’s recommendation to join other Texas school districts in a lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency and the commissioner of education over implementation failures in the state accountability system.
RISD campuses are rated annually with an A through F letter grade by the TEA. The rating system relies heavily on performance measures, methods and procedures rooted in students’ performance on the state’s annual standardized assessment, STAAR. RISD most recently was rated a “B” under the system in 2022.
Unfortunately, the TEA and commissioner have not finalized the rules or methodologies that will be used to evaluate schools for the 2022-23 or 2023-24 school years, as required by law. The commissioner announced on Sept. 12 a further delay in the issuance of the final rules for the accountability manual and the issuance of the 2023 accountability ratings.
“While acknowledging the rapidly changing landscape of the implementation of the new accountability system, we as a board have done our due diligence and believe this lawsuit is truly one of the only levers we have,” RISD Trustee Chris Poteet said. “A lawsuit is a last-case scenario. We believe that taking this position states what we think is good for our district as an independent school district.”
The lawsuit cites how the commissioner has failed to provide school districts with “a document in a simple, accessible format that explains the accountability performance measures, methods, and procedures that will be applied” for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prevent the commissioner from issuing new ratings using the retroactively applied, yet-to-be-finalized measures.
A specific point of concern of the refreshed A-F accountability system is that the TEA is raising the threshold to earn an A in the college, career, and military readiness performance metric to 88% from 60%. Yet the new threshold for the fall 2023 accountability ratings will be based on the performance of 2022 graduates.
RISD supports implementing increased rigor and standards for student performance; however, school districts across Texas should – and are legally required to – receive adequate notice of how the standards will be applied. RISD first urged TEA and legislators to re-evaluate the accountability system refresh in March in a joint letter co-signed by 250 Texas school districts and education organizations.
RISD continued to voice concerns to the commissioner and the TEA, but with no formal grievance process in place with the state agency, the only other recourse is to enter into litigation.
“This is an issue of fundamental fairness,” RISD Superintendent Tabitha Branum said. “The state’s failure to provide the required advanced notice is likely to have a direct, negative impact on ratings for our schools and district. The state’s actions can be likened to arbitrarily changing the rules after a high school football game, and then holding our students responsible for the results.”
Despite overall growth in RISD student STAAR scores, the retroactively applied changes to the accountability system are likely to lower the rating for Richardson ISD and most districts in Texas. The district also anticipates ratings for many RISD campuses to decline by one or more letter grades, which would not be reflective of how students have grown academically, especially since the pandemic.
The cost of litigation will be split among participating school districts and is not anticipated to exceed $10,000.
Read the RISD resolution here.
Learn more about changes to the STAAR test and accountability system.
