A judge with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Texas Education Agency can release its 2023 A-F school accountability ratings, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The ruling overturned a district judge’s injunction after more than 120 school districts sued to stop TEA from releasing the ratings. Those districts argued that the agency did not provide enough advance notice about changes to the formula used to calculate the rating. The A-F ratings assigned to each district and campus are based on standardized test performance, though the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the process. The appeals court ruled that TEA Commissioner Mike Morath had the authority to postpone their issuance or to change the standards after the 2022-2023 school year was over.
“We agree that after a race is over not everyone can be declared the winner,” the court’s opinion read. “But it is not our role as judges to decide whether the Commissioner’s decisions were necessary or fair. The Districts’ burden … was to show the Commissioner acted ‘without legal authority,’ not that he should have exercised his discretion another way.”
