North Texas school districts join TEA lawsuit over

FORT WORTH (CBSNewsTexas.com) – Dozens of school districts in North Texas say they’re fighting back against the Texas Education Agency’s new accountability ratings system. 

At the Dallas Regional Chamber’s annual State of Public Education event Tuesday, keynote speaker TEA Commissioner Mike Morath told attendees that publicly reporting A – F scores of schools is not just a good idea, its effectiveness has been studied methodically.  

“Having high expectations in that accountability system causes children to earn more money when they’re in their twenties,” he said.”It is hard work. There’s nothing about this that is easy, but it’s the most important work that we do.” 

During a panel discussion, superintendents from Dallas, Plano and Cedar Hill ISDs expressed their disappointment and disapproval of the recently made changes. 

“We have school districts who are busting their tails, teachers who are busting their tails and doing amazing things, but you can have double-digit gains and based upon the way the current systems is supposed to fall out, you can actually lose a letter grade,” Cedar Hill ISD Superintendent Dr. Gerald Hudson said. 

“We all know that parents do now look at these letter grades when they’re choosing where to live so this could have an impact on property values, student enrollment,” Dallas ISD Superintendent Dr. Stephanie Elizalde said. “Anytime you’re talking about student enrollment, you’re talking about dollars.”

Now, several North Texas school districts, including Dallas, Fort Worth and Prosper ISDs, are suing Morath. They’re calling what happened a violation of state law. 

“This is for the class of 2022,” Prosper ISD Superintendent Dr. Holly Ferguson said. 

“We can do nothing about what’s occurred. He should have given us notice before the start of school last year so that that way we can plan, prepare and be able to ensure that we were meeting those standards.” 

“There has to be a transparent and fair process and today, six weeks into the next school year, school districts, schools, teachers still don’t know how they’ll be held accountable,” Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Dr. Angélica Ramsey said. 

Moving forward, some believe this will hurt morale and could be the last straw for teachers if not resolved. 

“To our teachers, because we hear from them, it’s demoralizing,” Plano ISD Superintendent Dr. Theresa Williams said. 

“That could lead to such a discouragement that you just say I’m leaving,” Elizalde said.

 “It’s just… it’s not right,” Ferguson said. 

Following Tuesday’s event, we requested an interview with Morath to get his response to these specific concerns and were told he needed to leave right away.