KINGSVILLE, Texas — For the second year in a row, The Texas Education Agency has been blocked from releasing its ratings of the state’s school districts and campuses.
Those ratings were supposed to come out Thursday.
Earlier this week, a Travis County Judge looked at a second lawsuit filed over the proposed rating system and agreed to issue a temporary restraining order.
Just as it was with the first lawsuit, the Kingsville ISD is once again leading the way, with Superintendent Dr. Cissy Reynolds-Perez saying they are simply looking for a grading system that is fair.
"First and foremost, we do not mind being held accountable," Perez said. "In fact, we should be held accountable, as all professional or public entities should be held accountable. That's not what this is about."
Last year, the superintendent joined leaders in more than 120 other school districts in successfully challenging the TEA’s intention to release A-F accountability ratings, saying they would unfairly give campuses lower marks.
On Monday, Kingsville ISD joined four other districts to keep it from happening again.
The initial lawsuit alleged that Education Commissioner Mike Morath didn’t give districts enough notice about the new methods and measures that would be used to calculate their new score.
This latest lawsuit goes further and takes issue with the STARR test, saying it isn’t "valid and reliable" and should not be used to assign A-F ratings.
One of the biggest complaints, according to the lawsuit, is that human graders have been replaced with AI grading, something the state rolled out last December.
"I think our kids and our teachers are worth saying, 'Timeout. What kind of a test did you use to test us and was it valid? How about the scoring?' Because we’re noticing some trends that look like we need a timeout to look at them more thoroughly," Perez said.
The lawsuit claims there has not been time to ensure that this approach would not negatively impact test scores.
The TEA issued a statement on the ruling, which reads in part:
"It is disappointing that a small group of school boards and superintendents opposed to fair accountability and transparency have once again filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing A-F ratings from being issued and keeping families in the dark about how their schools are doing."
The next hearing in the case is set for Aug. 26.