By Talia Richman
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
When Texas schools receive their annual A-F grades on Friday, they also will get their scores for 2024.
This unusual rollout stems from a protracted legal battle concerning the release of academic accountability scores.
A group of districts sued Education Commissioner Mike Morath in 2023 and 2024, seeking to stop the Texas Education Agency from publishing scores. Both lawsuits were unsuccessful in the 15th Court of Appeals.
The court cleared the way for 2023 scores to come out in April. The agency got the go-ahead on 2024 scores in July.
At that point, officials decided to release both sets of campus and district grades Aug. 15. The 2025 grades will provide families the most up-to-date information about how well their local schools are performing.
But the 2024 grades remain important, especially for struggling schools. If a campus scores a failing grade for five years in a row, it opens a district up for state sanctions.
Under this rule, Fort Worth ISD is facing a possible state takeover. The conflict centers around the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak sixth-grade campus, which earned an F in 2023. The district has already closed the school, but consequences could still be coming.
Texas’ academic accountability system evaluates every public school and district across the state on an A-F scale, giving families a sense of how their campuses are performing. The ratings — based largely on standardized test scores — are a major factor in how communities perceive their schools, with parents often considering the metrics when deciding where to enroll their children.
Families can find the latest results on TXschools.gov.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
