Academic accountability ratings for school districts across the state will be waived in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Texas Education Agency announced on Thursday.
Instead, all districts and campuses will receive a label from the TEA that declares "Not Rated: Declared State of Disaster.”
This move recognizes the closure of schools during the state’s testing window has impacted the TEA's ability to accurately gauge district and campus performance for the 2019-20 school year.
The TEA's announcement, which comes as all state schools are closed by order of Gov. Greg Abbott until at least May 4, after the governor already announced the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR test requirements also would be waived for this year.
“While we continuously work to ensure our “A-F” accountability system paints an accurate picture of school performance, these unprecedented circumstances have forced all of us to change and adapt,” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said in a statement. “Given we won’t have underlying information to assess performance, we won’t be assigning accountability letter grades for the 2019-20 school year.”