More than 70 school districts, including several in North Texas, have signed a letter asking the Texas Education Agency to delay implementing a new data reporting system that may have led to several errors. Those errors, the districts say, could hurt both their state funding and accountability scores.
Every year, districts share data with the state, including attendance numbers, enrollment, special education populations, homeless students, and students completing college preparatory courses. That data determines which schools meet state standards and how much money those schools should receive.
The TEA announced three years ago that changes were coming in that data reporting. According to the Texas Tribune, which obtained a copy of the letter, a trial run last year revealed errors in the data submitted to that system.
Before this year, schools sent the data to the TEA directly by working with software vendors. This year the software vendors are responsible for submitting that data to the TEA, based on standards set up by the organization Ed-Fi Alliance.
The problem, the districts say, is that the pilot program unveiled several inaccuracies and errors, which were transmitted to the state, and districts are not clear on how to correct them. The TEA told the Tribune that districts can resolve those errors before the first reporting deadline in December and resubmit data until January 16. It also says it has resolved several thousand tickets that reported problems with the system.
“In addition to cumulative prior-year unfunded mandates, districts are navigating this transition in a time of significant budget shortfalls across the state in our public schools,” the letter reads. “The unfunded mandate to transition to the Ed-Fi system in the 2024-25 school year when no one is ready has dire consequences for districts in terms of funding, accountability, and reporting.”
About 16 North Texas school districts have signed on to the September 13 letter, including Frisco, Denton, Plano, McKinney, and Richardson. Missing are two of the biggest districts: Dallas ISD and Fort Worth ISD.
The districts that have signed on to the letter ask the TEA to create a safety net for districts and delay the implementation of the new system until it can be more thoroughly investigated. They’re also asking the state to extend the pilot program for another year, provide better training to districts, and to have an independent audit of the data submitted to the new system.
In 2023, Dallas ISD joined other districts in a lawsuit seeking to delay accountability scores until districts could understand new benchmarks that rolled out after the 2022-2023 school year. Districts argued that they were only provided with a final version of the TEA’s new performance benchmarks once it was too late for them to implement them in the school year they went into effect. That case remains open in Travis County district court.
The release of those A-F scores was postponed again this year in response to a second suit questioning the use of artificial intelligence to score tests, which rolled out in time for the 2023-2024 school year. The schools involved in the suit say that several students erroneously scored zero on their assessments. This marks the fifth year in a row that accountability rankings have not been released. Pandemic-related cancelations and disruptions contributed to that, too.
This year, Dallas ISD opted to release its internal calculations of what their scores would be for the 2023-2024 school year, predicting that the district would receive a C rating. The district said the number of high schools with A and B grades nearly doubled compared to 2023 and had no failing high schools.
“Our Board of Trustees values transparency and accountability in how the district is performing, which is why we are releasing these internal calculations,” Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said in a statement. “We recently shared results of the STAAR with our board and the public, showing areas where we held steady and areas where we need to continue to drive improvement. We will continue to focus on student success, and our task is made more difficult without an increase to the basic allotment or funding for evidence-based practices.”
Two districts that signed on to this week’s letter—Grapevine-Colleyville and Keller—threatened to withhold recapture payments last year after public education funding bills didn’t advance in the legislature.
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