TEA Releases 2019 A-F Accountability Ratings For SMCISD, Hays CISD

Staff Reports

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) today released its 2019 state accountability ratings for approximately 1,200 school districts and charter schools.

Districts and charters once again received A-F ratings, but new this year are A-F ratings for individual schools. Statewide, hundreds of districts and schools improved their overall rating from 2018.

San Marcos Consolidated Independent School received a C rating for the 2018-2019 school year.

While the district received the same accountability score as the year prior, it has shown improvement rising to 77 out of 100 compared to 2017-2018’s 72 out of 100. 

This year, the district received straight c’s in all three accountability criteria. 

• Closing the Gaps | 73 out of 100
• School Progress |  79 out of 100 
• Student Achievement | 72 out of 100

Of the district’s 10 schools, Travis Elementary was the only one to fail the accountability rating. The campus received 58 out of 100. In 2017-2018, the campus met the standard with 65 out of 100. This year, however, the district failed to meet standards in all three of the accountability criteria. 

• Closing the Gaps | 56 out of 100
• School Progress |  59 out of 100 
• Student Achievement | 56 out of 100

SMCISD’s remaining nine campuses received grades letter ratings between B and D with Goodnight Middle School and Miller Middle School receiving Ds. 

Hays Consolidated Independent School District received a B rating with 84 out of 100. The district rose seven points from last year’s C rating of 77 out of 100. 

Hays CISD received low Bs in all three criteria as a whole.

• Closing the Gaps | 83 out of 100
• School Progress |  84 out of 100 
• Student Achievement | 82 out of 100

Of the districts 24 campuses, D J Red Simon Middle School and DR T C McCormick Jr Middle school receive Ds, six received Cs, eleven others received Bs and four were awarded As.

“Performance continues to improve in Texas schools because of the tireless effort of Texas teachers, administrators and staff. I am particularly proud of the educators at the 296 high-poverty schools that achieved an A rating this year,” said Education Commissioner Mike Morath. “With resources on TXschools.gov, educators and parents and empowered as they never have been before to support even greater improvements in the future.”

For a closer look at the new ratings, TEA encourages parents, educators and community members to visit TXschools.gov to view district and school report cards.

Officials said the website has been enhanced with new several new features allowing visitors to better understand the accountability ratings data.

These include ways to analyze trends, compare performance, and correlate results, as well as a new map feature which provides parents the ability to more easily view ratings of nearby schools.

The A-F system has remained consistent with last year’s system. As in 2018, districts, charters, and schools are given an overall rating based on performance in three areas:

• Student Achievement shows how much students know and are able to do at the end of the school year.
• School Progress shows how students perform over time and how that growth compares to similar schools.
• Closing the Gaps shows how well different groups of students within a school are performing.

A-F accountability uses a variety of indicators such as graduation rates, college, career and military readiness, SAT/ACT scores, and college prep course completion.

The majority of a district’s rating is based on indicators other than the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test.