Texas school ratings improve, but more campuses inch closer to state sanctions

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The share of Texas public schools that are failing dropped by half in the past year, marking the lowest rate of underperforming campuses since letter grades were introduced for schools in 2019.

New data released by the Texas Education Agency on Friday show public schools have made overall gains in their state ratings, which measure how well they are educating their students. F ratings across campuses in the state declined from 8% to 4%. About one in three campuses improved their score from the prior year.

The TEA released grades for the 2024-2025 school year Friday, along with grades for the 2023-24 school year that had previously been held up in court.

These letter grades shape communities. Parents may pull their kid out of a school after a low score. And all it takes is five years of failing grades at one campus for a district to face bruising sanctions. The state has ordered underperforming schools to shut down and replaced a district’s democratically elected school board with state appointees when they have reached that threshold — like with the Houston school district state takeover in 2023.

Struggling schools are inching toward state sanctions. According to an analysis from The Texas Tribune, the number of schools with at least two consecutive years of grades considered unacceptable by the TEA — based on D or F ratings — jumped from 64 in the 2022-23 school year to 348 in the 2024-25 school year.

Connally Elementary School in Waco and Marilyn Miller Language Academy in Fort Worth are among the campuses feeling the most pressure. Both schools have amassed five years of unacceptable grades with the latest ratings, which means their districts qualify for a state takeover, a TEA spokesperson told the Tribune on Friday.

Since campuses first got letter grades in 2019, education advocates have criticized the state’s school accountability system saying it doesn’t fully account for the challenges schools in low-income areas face, which often work with fewer resources to serve students with higher needs.

Ratings for schools and districts largely depend on standardized test scores and are based on three categories: how students perform on state tests and meet college and career readiness benchmarks; how students improve on their academic skills over time; and how well schools are educating the state’s most disadvantaged students.

Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath on Friday said schools in high-poverty areas can still score well on the A-F rating system. He said state funding is set up to direct more resources to schools in high-poverty areas —– and the right school and district leadership wields those resources to meet the needs of their students.

“Poverty is not destiny,” Morath said. “What you buy with that money turns out to matter a great deal… Leadership matters…. Other places we have more leadership struggles.”

Among the campuses that saw gains was Harmony Hills Elementary School in San Antonio, a campus where three out of four students are economically disadvantaged. Its score jumped from an A to a C in the last school year. Carri Elliott, the school principal, said on Friday that teachers and classroom coaches used test scores every two weeks to make adjustments to instruction and make sure students are on the right track.

A Tribune analysis confirmed that a handful of high-poverty campuses did well last school year, with 12% receiving an A, and 31% receiving a B.

But 26% of lower-income districts received a C, and they're generally more likely to get a D or an F than their wealthier counterparts. This year, nearly one in four schools in the highest poverty bracket received a D or an F, compared to less than 1% of schools in the lowest bracket.

The latest ratings also suggest middle schools face greater challenges educating their students. About 55% of Texas middle schools received an A or B, compared to 53% of elementary schools, 62% of high schools, and 55% of multi-level schools. Texas’ elementary and middle schools also have a higher rate of Ds and Fs, compared to high schools.

Texas lawmakers made some investments in middle schools earlier this year. They expanded a program that increases instructional time to middle schools as part of a $8.5 billion school funding package.

The release of two years of ratings Friday bookends a fight between school districts and the state over how grades were calculated. A state appeals court last month ruled TEA could release the ratings, overturning a freeze from a lower court. A similar ruling from the same high court allowed the state to release 2022-23 school year ratings in the spring.

“Today marks a return to clarity and accountability,” Morath wrote in a statement. “With the release of the 2025 A–F Ratings, we are reinforcing our commitment to transparency and to providing accurate, readily available information that helps every family understand how their school is doing.”

As Texas parents evaluate their schools’ performance, they face a changing education landscape with more access to alternatives to public schools. A school voucher program set to launch in the 2026-27 school year will allow families to get about $10,000 in public taxpayer dollars to pay for their children’s private schooling.

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