A Travis County judge has granted a group of more than 30 schools a temporary restraining order to block the release of the Texas Education Agency’s A-F campus grades.
As reported by the Austin American-Statesman, Travis County Judge Daniella Deseta Lyttle of the 201st District Court blocked the release of the scores the TEA uses to grade campuses and districts “until this Court issues a final judgment.” A trial has been set for February 10, 2025.
The TEA told the Statesman that it plans to appeal the injunction.
This is the second year in a row that the TEA has been blocked from releasing its A-F grades. In 2023, about 100 argued that the TEA had unfairly recalibrated the grading rubric and waited too long to communicate the changes, and that those adjustments negatively affected districts.
This year, a group of five districts argued that theTEA had failed to address the previous issues and that the recent decision to use AI technology to grade student-written essays on the STAAR test was causing a larger percentage of 0/10 scores.
“Based on data obtained in July 2024, somewhere between 30 – 75% of these 0 scores from AI grading have proven to be inaccurate when reviewed and rescored by human graders,” court documents state.
The TEA’s accountability system uses STAAR test scores, achievement, graduation rates, and college and career readiness to grade districts.
The group of schools that were granted the injunction includes Hays, Jarrell, Lockhart, Manor, and Temple. However, some large school districts, such as Dallas and Houston, released unofficial A-F grades in August.
Lawmakers have expressed frustration with the continued stonewalling on releasing the grades.
“I’m tired of having a suit go into the Travis County courts that basically blocks A-F for another year,” State Sen Paul Bettencourt, a Republican, said. “What gets measured gets fixed. This is an absolutely critical component of public education.”
