Bad Apple Methodology

The Dallas Express has developed the new Bad Apple tracker to hold elected trustees accountable for the failing schools and abandoned students in Dallas ISD. We hope to expand this coverage to other ISDs in the Metroplex over time.

The first Bad Apple of the Quarter is the Dallas ISD trustee with the most students in school with a Student Achievement Score of 69 or below for the 2021 – 2022 school year in their specific district. Subsequent quarters in the same year will highlight the Dallas ISD trustee with the next largest number of students abandoned to a substandard school in their respective district.

These school scores are taken from the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) annual “Student Achievement Scores,” which are given to every public school in Texas. For a detailed breakdown of each school’s score and student population, click here.

A school’s Student Achievement Score is a composite of its STAAR scores; “College, Career, and Military Readiness” (CCMR) indicators; and graduation rates. In short, it is an objective metric taken directly from student performance.

Separately, a school’s Accountability Rating as calculated by the TEA is a composite of a school’s Student Achievement Score as well as its “School Progress” and “Closing the Gaps” scores, the latter two putting greater emphasis on qualitative considerations and less emphasis on objectively determinative measures.

For these reasons, we use schools’ Student Achievement Scores, and not the Accountability Ratings, as the preferred metric when reporting on school performance.

Alongside each school’s Student Achievement Score, we have also assigned that school a Student Achievement Grade. Per Senate Bill 1365 passed in 2021, schools that score below a C in the 2021 – 2022 school year are assigned a label of “Not Rated: Senate Bill 1365” by the TEA, rather than a D or F. However, we at The Dallas Express have chosen to not redefine terms in order to eliminate transparency from parents whose children are in terrible schools and believe all scores should be treated equally. For this reason, all schools with a Student Achievement Score of 60-69 have been given a D and all schools with a Student Achievement Score of 59 or less have been given an F.

Lastly, of the 237 schools in Dallas ISD included in the TEA’s 2021 – 2022 datasheet, 12 schools were not given a Student Achievement Score or a Student Achievement Grade. These schools were simply assigned a label of “Not Rated.” For this reason, we have not included them within our analysis and these schools will not be found in our Dallas ISD school score dropdown list.