As we kick off the school year, we look forward to a great school year focused on learning and student achievement. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has not publicly released school accountability ratings for the 2023-24 school year due to a lawsuit filed by five independent school districts in August 2024. However, standing with Texas families, educators and taxpayers who deserve to know how the state’s public schools are performing, IDEA Public Schools filed a petition August 29 to intervene in ongoing litigation that is preventing the Texas Education Agency (TEA) from publishing A-F grades for the state’s public schools and districts. IDEA is committed to supporting Texas families and educators by ensuring transparency in public school performance.
IDEA Public Schools proactively confirmed data results and a projected rating for each campus with the TEA to gain a comprehensive overview of district and campus performance to share with families. While we project that 63% of IDEA schools in Texas earned an A or B this past year — a smaller percentage than the 71% the year before, we believe in sharing these results regardless of performance.
Here are some district highlights:
- 63% of our schools earned an ‘A’ or ‘B’ Rating
- 75% of students’ tests earned Approaches
- 47% of students’ tests earned Meets
- 18% of students’ tests earned Masters
As a district, IDEA also received a scaled score and letter grade in three performance areas: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps:
- Domain I: Student Achievement: 78
- Domain II: School Progress | Academic Growth: 83
- Domain III: Closing the Gap: 81
- IDEA District Accountability Rating Score: 82 (B)
- 17 of our high schools earned a perfect 100 scale score in their Domain 1 College, Career, Military Readiness component
- 52,187 | 65% of our currently enrolled students are learning in an A or B school
These ratings indicate we have much room for improvement, especially due to recent updates to the testing material, which have affected scoring for all districts. We are focused on a strong and strategic approach this school year, so that we increase the number of A and B schools by eliminating our D and F schools, including:
- Adjusting how we are training teachers and leaders to ensure they are getting the highest quality training and resources exactly when they need it
- Adjusting systems for how we collect, analyze and strategize unit assessment to ensure alignment and accountability
- Increasing focus on instructional strategies for teaching students in our special education program and learning English as a second language
- Building out our Tier 2 intervention system of support for students
- Organizing a group of leaders to support and manage the turnaround of our D and F schools
We are committed to continuous growth across all our campuses, with the goal of every campus achieving an ‘A’ rating. While these ratings are a vital measure of our success, they are just one part of the broader picture.
The state accountability system is an important indicator of our impact on student academic growth. At IDEA, we will continue to measure our success by monitoring early literacy, Critical Student Intervention, college acceptance rates, ACT scores, Advanced Placement scores, and other metrics.
We extend our deepest gratitude to our Team & Family. Your hard work and dedication have not gone unnoticed. Our commitment to transforming education by preparing our graduates to succeed in college and life remains stronger than ever. Here’s to a successful and rewarding school year ahead.
An overview of IDEA’s projected district accountability ratings for the 23-24 school year can be found here: ideapublicschools.org/annual-reporting/.
