TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — A Travis County judge issued a ruling Monday that blocks the Texas Education Agency from releasing its A-F accountability school ratings for school districts across the state.
KHOU 11 News obtained the filing, which lists five school districts as plaintiffs in the application for a temporary restraining order on the release of the ratings. Commissioner of Education Mike Morath is listed as the sole defendant in the court action.
It's the second straight year the statewide accountability ratings have been hung up due to legal reasons.
In the petition, the plaintiffs claim Morath wasn't able to prove the new STAAR test was reliable and also turned to AI to grade the tests, which the document claims resulted in a test that's not valid and reliable.
Last week, Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles talked about preliminary accountability ratings for the state's largest district.
Miles said preliminary state data showed the district reduced the number of "D" and "F" rated schools from 121 to 41 while also increasing the number of "A" and "B" rated schools from 93 to 170.
The state was expected to release the full data on school performance grades on Thursday, Aug. 15, but the judge's order puts that date in doubt.
The next hearing in the case is set for Aug. 26.
The TEA issued this statement on the ruling:
"The A-F accountability system is good for kids. It is why the legislature adopted a strong A-F framework to help improve the quality of student learning across the state, give parents a clear understanding of how well their schools are performing and establish clear expectations for school leaders so they can better serve students. It is disappointing that a small group of school boards and superintendents opposed to fair accountability and transparency have once again filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing A-F ratings from being issued and keeping families in the dark about how their schools are doing.
"TEA is reviewing the filing and will evaluate appropriate next steps."