As reported by The Dallas Express, newly-hired Dallas Independent School District superintendent Stephanie Elizalde made several negative comments on the state’s current A through F school rating system while sitting on an education panel.
Beginning in Florida in 1999, this system of public accountability has since been adopted by many states, including Texas. In 2018, former Texas Education Agency Commissioner Michael Williams said A-F would “kickstart the conversation around school quality.”
“In terms of the rating system itself … it is not perfect,” Elizalde said. “I am not a fan of A through F; I don’t think most superintendents are.”
The moderator of the panel then interjected, “But isn’t it the case that the superintendents who are fans are the ones who get A’s?”
Since the A-F rating system began assigning scores to school districts in Texas, Dallas has consistently scored a “B,” which would indicate solid performance for one of the state’s largest public school systems.
But looking at the numbers behind this letter grade reveals a much different reality.
A review of the TEA’s most recent “Student Achievement” data from the district reveals that Dallas ISD lags behind the state of Texas as a whole in almost every category. Across all subjects, only 41% of students at Dallas ISD are scoring at or above grade level on their STAAR tests, compared to the state average of 48%.
When accounting for individual subject matter, Dallas ISD students are significantly underachieving the state average in reading, science, and social studies by 10 percentage points each. Math is the relative bright spot, with Dallas ISD students only underachieving the state average by three percentage points.
Dallas ISD is also lagging behind the state in 2021’s four-year graduation rate by nearly nine percentage points, at 81.1% on-time graduation in the district versus 90% for the state at large.
Roughly 4.5% of all Dallas ISD students dropped out before graduating, nearly double the state average of 2.4%. This meant that for the school year 2020-2021, almost 2,000 students failed to successfully complete their high school education.
When reviewing Dallas ISD’s College, Career, and Military Readiness data within the “Student Achievement” section, only 59% met certain metrics required to be considered ready for higher education, a workforce career, or entrance into the armed forces.
A closer inspection of this data dampens the aforementioned bright spot surrounding Dallas ISD student performance in math, as only 28% met the mathematics criteria for the Texas Success Initiative, which is designed to help colleges determine if an applicant is ready for college-level coursework.
Concurrently, only 10% of Dallas ISD students graduate with an industry-based certification, which is only half as many as the state average.
Dallas ISD also releases its own A-F campus ratings under a state program called the Local Accountability System, which is a voluntary program that allows each school district to “choose locally determined measures to be included in a campus’ official state accountability rating.” These plans must be approved by the state and can be weighed as high as 50% of the state’s final accountability rating.
According to Dallas ISD’s own Local Accountability System, 53% of their campuses were rated a C or worse, with 18% receiving a D or F in their School Effectiveness Index.
The Dallas Express reached out to Dallas ISD School Board Trustee Edwin Flores for comment on these data points, but as of the writing of this article, had not yet received a response.
Note: This article was updated on Friday, September 30, at 11:01 a.m. to correct an error.