It’s back to school season in Texas, and it’s a hectic time of year for those of us who are parents, but also a hopeful one, as we put our trust in our schools and districts to prepare our children for their future. To help you feel informed, the Bush Institute is releasing a three-part back to school video series on important education topics every parent should know.
Today’s focus is the 2025 A to F accountability ratings from the Texas Education Agency or the TEA. Released just over a week ago, these ratings cover districts, campuses and charter schools across the state – offering an official picture of how well our schools are educating our students. Before we jump in, I want spend a minute on why these ratings are important and how they differ from websites like Niche or Great Schools, which often rely on inconsistent anecdotal and subjective data that are sometimes driven by commercial interests.
TEA ratings use objective state data like test scores and graduation rates, and are the most reliable way to understand your school or district’s performance. So how does the TEA grade schools and districts? Using data from the state STAR test graduation rates and college career and military readiness, which includes measures like S-A-T, A-C-T, and AP test outcomes. The TEA measures and scores, campuses and districts, and three areas.
First, student achievement. How many students are performing at grade level? Second, school progress, how much is the campus or district increasing achievement? And third closing gaps. How much is the campus or district closing achievement gaps between student subgroups, which can be based on gender, race, and ethnicity, free and reduced lunch and special education status.
Of those measures, the higher score between student achievement and student progress is used and weighted at 70%. And then combined with the closing the gap score weighted at 30%. Giving a campus or district an accountability score, an overall grade.
For 2025, report card results include a lot of good news. 31% of campuses improved their letter grades from last year. Only 15% declined while the rest remained the same. The number of failing schools dropped by half the lowest since the rating system began in 2019. And following a 2023 state takeover, Houston ISD saw what Commissioner Morath called the largest academic turnaround in US history.
In that district, the number of A and B rated campuses jumped from 93 to 197 in two years. Well, the number of DNF rated campuses fell from 121 to just 18.
There are also some real concerns with the report card results. The number of schools with two or more consecutive years of D or F ratings rose sharply from 64 in 2023 to 348 and 2025 statewide.
9,084 campuses were rated, and of those 24% were rated an A 35% a B, 25% a C, 11% a D, and 5% a F. You can visit Texasschools.gov to look up your school or district compare results and see year to year changes. Access school or district reports by typing the name of the campus or district into the search bar on the landing page.
From there, you’ll be directed to the accountability report cover page on this page. It offers a school profile where you’ll find a summary of overall performance. Details about student and teacher populations. For explanations on each measure, you can click tell me more, and for deeper insight into the data, click Dig into this data to see results by student subgroup and across multiple years.
If you toggle over the student performance tab at the top of the page, you’ll find detailed reports on how many students are in grade level for a specific subject and grade level. How much growth the school made in student achievement. How well it closed achievement gaps between student subgroups.
The finance tab next to student performance shows per student spending over time compared to the district and state averages. You can click “dig into this data” for a breakdown of specific expense areas. Under tools and reports, you’ll be directed to the TEA website. While this site is less user-friendly, it does include discipline data and options to create custom reports where you can compare schools and districts. And finally, under the report cards tab, you’ll find accountability reports from previous years.
You can also find user-friendly tools for exploring this data on the Texas Tribune and commit Texas websites. We’ll include links to all three sites in the notes. Pay close attention to how student performance and absenteeism rates at your school compared to district and state averages. Whether students across groups are making progress at what the student to teacher ratio is and how experienced the teachers are.
And finally, how per pupil spending compare with state and district averages. If you have concerns about your school or district’s report card, consider meeting with your principal or district leaders. Some useful questions to consider asking are:
- What is the why behind the numbers?
- Were there changes in curriculum, staffing, or student population?
- How does the school use student achievement data to guide instruction and train teachers?
- What interventions are in place for students who are below grade level?
- What are the school’s safety and discipline policies, and how are budget decisions made and do student outcomes shape those choices?
Thank you for joining our first Back to School segment.
Be sure to check the notes for links and resources and leave your questions in the comments. We’ll be back soon with our next segment, what every parent needs to know about reading. Thank you.
