TEA Accountability Grade Release Temporarily Paused

A Travis County judge temporarily blocked the Texas Education Agency from releasing new A-F accountability ratings after determining the new system is unlawful and would harm districts.

The ruling came Oct. 26 when the judge granted a temporary injunction to a coalition of school districts, securing at least a brief win for the districts involved in a lawsuit against Education Commissioner Mike Morath, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The Texas Education Agency plans to appeal the decision.

“This ruling completely disregards the laws of this state and for the foreseeable future, prevents any A-F performance information from being issued to help millions of parents and educators improve the lives of our students,” an agency statement reads.

Dallas ISD and dozens of other Texas districts filed a lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency in September over the changes that were made this year to the state’s school accountability system.

(READ: Dallas ISD Joins Other Texas Districts in TEA Lawsuit)

At the time, Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said the refresh was applied retroactively after standardized testing is complete and a new school year has begun, which will cause the district’s recent improvements to not be reflected.

“Dallas ISD believes in holding ourselves accountable, and we expect to meet and exceed high standards, but we should know ahead of time the expectations and rules,” Elizalde said. “Put simply, our test scores have gone up, but under the new system, our ratings are projected to decrease. This does not make sense.”