The Dallas Independent School District this week joined at least 20 other Texas districts and counting — from Kingsville to Crowley, Frisco to Fort Stockton — in suing Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath over recent changes to the A-F rating system.
The updated evaluation requires higher scores from schools and districts to maintain current grades. Districts complain changes were delivered too late, and now fear a drastic drop in ratings will lead to damaging and unfair results.
In a statementabout the decision to join the lawsuit, Dallas ISD superintendent Stephanie Elizalde delivered a simple message.
“Dallas ISD believes in holding ourselves accountable, and we expect to meet and exceed high standards,” she wrote. “But we should know ahead of time the expectations and rules.”
She said the May update of the A-F system after tests were taken won’t “reflect our district’s recent improvements, which currently outpace the state in many areas.
“Put simply, our test scores have gone up, but under the new system, our ratings are projected to decrease. This does not make sense.”
At Thursday’s special board meeting, Dallas ISD trustee Dan Micciche, a lawyer, also said it’s not fair.
“It’s bad policy to do things retroactively without fair notice of what the rules of the game are,” he said. “The A through F refresh, if applied to the 2022-23 year, would be changing the rules of the game after the game has been played.”
Dallas is largest district to have joined the suit. Fort Worth ISD could join the list next Tuesday.
The Texas Education Agency told KERA it could not comment on legal matters.
On Tuesday, however, TEA announced it would not publicly deliver ratings Sept. 28, as planned. Their releaseis delayed until October.
