A-F Accountability Ratings System

Each year, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) publishes Accountability ratings for more than 1,200 school districts and charters, as well as more than 8,600 campuses statewide. For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Texas Education Agency released its accountability ratings for Texas school districts and campuses on Aug. 15, 2022.

Texas schools are currently rated on a A-F scale based on three criteria: student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps. Districts and campuses with scores of 90-100 received an A, followed by 80-89 for a B and 70-79 for a C. Unrated schools scored below a 70. 

Texas is a big state, and so is the North Texas real estate market! Our NTREIS MLS System currently covers 31 counties, 295 Districts / Charters, and 2,286 campuses. That is over a quarter of the State! If you are researching different Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex communities and schools, this resource makes quick work of looking up school ratings by Address, City, Zip Code, District, or by a particular campus name.

What is the A-F Accountability Rating System At a Glance?

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) assigns school accountability ratings based on various factors such as student achievement, academic growth, relative performance, closing the gaps, graduation rates, and college/career/military readiness. These ratings are derived from the school's overall score, which is calculated using three performance evaluation categories or domains: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps. The overall score is determined by combining scaled scores from these domains, with the higher score from Student Achievement and School Progress counting for 70% of the overall score, and the scaled score from Closing the Gaps counting for 30%. The overall score is then used to assign letter grades to schools. The domains consist of components that vary depending on the school level and include factors such as STAAR scores, graduation rates, college/career/military readiness, academic growth, and performance targets for different subgroups. The STAAR performance of students is graded based on categories like Did Not Meet Grade Level, Approaches Grade Level, Meets Grade Level, and Masters Grade Level, and the school's overall STAAR performance is calculated based on the percentage of tests that fall into these categories. The accountability ratings also consider factors like subsets of students and the October/Fall Snapshot day, which collects data on student and staff demographics.


History of Texas School Ratings

From 2012 to 2014, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) was phased out and replaced by the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test in accordance with to Texas Senate Bill 1031. With this change, the TEA adopted new nomenclature relating to the revised accountability system that accompanied this change. The system changed again as a result of House Bill 2804 passed by the 84th Texas Legislature in 2015, and TEA’s new A-F rating system was provisionally implemented. A-F Accountability was formally adopted in the 2017-18 school year; however, accountability ratings were not issued in 2020 or 2021, due to the pandemic

Prior to 2012, school or districts received one of four possible rankings: Exemplary (the highest possible ranking), Recognized, Academically Acceptable, and Academically Unacceptable (the lowest possible ranking). In rare instances, the category Not Rated: Other was used. If you are researching properties and descriptive data uses these categories, the information is obsolete. We are sharing this historical information for reference.

Starting in 2013, Texas adopted a new standard using labels as described below. 

  • Met Standard indicates acceptable performance and is assigned to districts and campuses that meet the targets on all required indexes for which they have performance data.
  • Met Alternative Standard indicates acceptable performance and is assigned to eligible charter districts and alternative education campuses (AECs) that are evaluated by alternative education accountability (AEA) provisions.
  • Improvement Required indicates unacceptable performance and is assigned to districts and campuses, including charter districts and AECs evaluated under AEA provisions, that do not meet the targets on all required indexes for which they have performance data.

  • Not Rated indicates that a district or campus did not receive a rating. Some (but not all) reasons for this could include the following: the district or campus serves only students enrolled in early education; the district operates only residential facilities; the campus is a juvenile justice alternative education program; the campus is a disciplinary alternative education program; the campus is a residential facility; or the test documents for either the district or campus were lost in transit between the district and the test contractor.

  • Not Rated: Data Integrity Issues indicates that data accuracy and/or integrity have compromised performance results, making it impossible to assign a rating. The assignment of a Not Rated: Data Integrity Issues label may be permanent or temporary pending further investigation.

These ratings were based on a system that used a range of indicators to provide greater detail on the performance of a district or charter and individual campuses throughout the state. The performance index framework included four areas:

  •  Student Achievement – Provides a snapshot of performance across all subjects
  • Student Progress – Measures year-to-year student progress by subject and student group
  • Closing Performance Gaps – Emphasizes the academic achievement of economically disadvantaged students and the lowest performing racial/ethnic student groups
  • Postsecondary Readiness – Emphasizes the importance of earning a high school diploma that provides students with the foundation necessary for success in college, the workforce, job training programs, or the military

Schools who met a Met Standard rating were eligible for 7 distinctions

    • Academic Achievement in Reading/English Language Arts (READING) 
    • Academic Achievement in Mathematics (MATH)
    • Academic Achievement in Science (SCIENCE) 
    • Academic Achievement in Social Studies (SOCIAL STUDIES) 
    • Top 25 Percent: Student Progress (PROG) 
    • Top 25 Percent: Closing Performance Gaps (GAP)
    • Postsecondary Readiness (PREP)