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For the first time since 2022, Texas parents, educators, and taxpayers have a complete view of how their public schools are performing. On August 16, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) officially released both the delayed 2024 and current 2025 A–F accountability ratings. The release followed a lengthy legal battle, during which more than 120 school districts sued the state over changes to the accountability system’s grading formula. These school districts argued the updated metrics would unfairly lower scores while schools were still recovering from the pandemic’s disruptions. The court ultimately dismissed the case in April 2025, paving the way for TEA to restore transparency to the system.
At a press briefing just days before the release, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath addressed the controversy.
“For two years, we had a coalition of school districts sue us to prevent us from issuing a draft rate, basically blinding the parents and the taxpayers as to how well those schools are performing…While the TEA may have won the court case, Morath argued that “the parents lost,” because they were denied timely access to critical performance data.”
Source: Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath
How Texas Calculates School Ratings: A Breakdown of the A–F System
Texas evaluates school and district performance through a 100-point system that assigns A through F letter grades. The goal is to give families a clear, fair understanding of how well schools are doing across the state. Each score is based on three domains: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps. The final grade reflects a combination of these metrics, tailored to the type of school being evaluated.
The Student Achievement domain reflects how much students know and how well they perform academically. For elementary and middle schools, this domain is based solely on how students perform on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR exams. For high schools and K–12 campuses, the calculation includes not just STAAR performance, but also graduation rates and measures of college, career, or military readiness. These indicators assess how well students are being prepared for life after high school, whether that path leads to further education, work, or service.
School Progress evaluates how much academic growth students show over time. This domain gives credit to schools where students are improving, even if they haven’t yet reached a particular benchmark. It allows schools to demonstrate success through meaningful gains, rather than raw test scores alone.
Closing the Gaps measures how effectively schools are serving traditionally underserved student populations, such as economically disadvantaged students, English learners, and students receiving special education services. It ensures that schools are being held accountable for equitably supporting all students.
For campus-level ratings, TEA uses a three-step process. First, each school receives a score in all three domains. Then, the higher score between Student Achievement and School Progress is selected. That score is weighted at 70 percent, while the Closing the Gaps score is weighted at 30 percent. These two numbers are then combined to determine the total weighted score. For example, if a school earns a 93 in Student Achievement and an 85 in School Progress, the higher score of 93 is used. If the Closing the Gaps score is 78, the final calculation becomes 65.1 (from Student Achievement) plus 23.4 (from Closing the Gaps), totaling 88.5, which corresponds to a B rating.
District ratings are calculated similarly, but the process begins by weighting each campus according to its enrollment in grades 3 through 12. Each campus’s scores in the three domains are multiplied by its share of the district’s total enrollment. Once that step is completed, the district-level scores for Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps are determined. The same 70/30 rule applies when combining the best domain score with Closing the Gaps to arrive at the overall district rating. A sample district using this method might again arrive at a final score of 88.5, resulting in a B rating.
Most Texas Schools Show Improvement in 2025 Ratings
The newly released ratings for the 2025 school year show positive momentum statewide. According to TEA data, 757 campuses earned an A rating in 2025 after receiving a lower rating in 2024. About 31 percent of all campuses improved their overall scores, while 85 percent either maintained their prior rating or improved from the previous year.
The vast majority of campuses, 80 percent statewide, received a letter grade of A, B, or C, meaning they met the acceptable performance standard. Only 14 percent of campuses received a D or F. Perhaps most significantly, nearly half (43 percent) of high-poverty campuses earned an A or B rating, reinforcing the idea that socioeconomic status does not have to determine academic success.
On the district level, the results were similarly encouraging. The percentage of districts earning either an A or B increased from 48 percent to 55 percent compared to the previous rating cycle. About one in four districts saw their overall letter grade improve by at least one level. These figures point to meaningful academic progress and provide evidence that reforms, when implemented effectively, are producing results.
Houston ISD Posts Historic Academic Turnaround
Nowhere were gains more dramatic than in the Houston Independent School District. After undergoing a state takeover in 2023, the district has seen what Commissioner Morath called “the largest academic turnaround in the history of the United States.” Houston ISD increased its number of A- and B-rated campuses from 93 to 197 in just two years. At the same time, the number of D- and F-rated campuses dropped sharply, from 121 to just 18.
Much of this improvement is credited to Superintendent Mike Miles, who was appointed by Morath following the state intervention. Upon taking the helm, Miles required roughly 1,000 employees to reapply for their jobs and redirected district resources away from administrative overhead and toward individual campuses. These aggressive reforms were not without controversy, but the impact has been undeniable.
Morath explained that before the state stepped in, Houston ISD was home to both some of the best and worst-performing campuses in the country, a symptom of chronic neglect. Under Miles’s leadership, the district has not only preserved the quality of high-performing schools but also managed to significantly lift struggling campuses in a short period.
Austin ISD Still Grappling With Underperformance
While Houston ISD is earning national attention for its progress, Austin ISD remains a cautionary tale. As of the 2025 ratings release, the district has 41 schools with D or F ratings, down only slightly from 49 two years ago. Despite efforts to improve, the district continues to face structural and instructional challenges.
During his press conference, Commissioner Morath described Austin’s problems as serious and persistent. He said the district has an “extremely high number of chronically underperforming campuses,” and that the state is closely monitoring its approach to turning them around. He did credit district leaders for being “thoughtful about how to recruit and then support the teachers and staff” in the most challenged schools.
Still, Morath emphasized that school success depends on more than good intentions. Effective leadership, strong instructional practices, high-quality curriculum, and a positive school culture all have to be present. “It is very clear that in several of these campuses in Austin, one or all of these things are missing,” he noted.
TEA’s Accountability Tools Are Now Publicly Available Again
With the legal disputes resolved and the ratings made public, TEA has fully restored its online accountability platform at TXschools.gov. Parents and community members can now search for individual campus or district ratings, compare performance across schools, and analyze changes from year to year.
Conclusion: Data Transparency Is Back and It Matters More Than Ever
The return of Texas school accountability ratings is about more than just numbers. It’s about restoring the trust and transparency that parents, students, and communities deserve. The legal battles that delayed these ratings for two years prevented families from knowing how their local schools were performing. Now that the data is back, the state can better celebrate successes and confront challenges.
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