Texas Education Agency Pausing A-F Ratings for Schools This Year
Due to all of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, schools will not receive an A-F rating for the school year from the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
In a statement on the TEA’s website, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said that while issuing A-F ratings for schools has been a valuable tool for improvement, it would difficult to use the ratings this year:
The issuance of A-F ratings for schools has proven to be a valuable tool to support continuous improvement for our students, allowing educators, parents, and the general public to better identify and expand efforts that are working for kids. But the pandemic has disrupted school operations in fundamental ways that have often been outside the control of our school leaders, making it far more difficult to use these ratings as a tool to support student academic growth. As a result, we will not issue A-F ratings this school year.
A post on the TEA’s website stated that while the A-F rating system will be paused, the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test will go on as planned. However, the TEA will allow schools that factor STAAR test results into teacher evaluations to remove the component this year.
Even though there have been many who called for the agency to forego the STAAR test this year, the TEA says, “STAAR will continue to be administered only in secure environments to ensure the results remain valid and reliable.”