The Texas Tribune's Texas Public Schools Explorer includes the Texas Education Agency's new A-F ratings for school districts, which were released in their school report cards in August.
The new rating system, which was passed during the 2017 legislative session, gives schools and districts letter grades based on three categories: student achievement, school progress and closing the gap. Each of these categories get a grade based on metrics, including how well students perform on standardized tests or whether students are ready for college, and the three grades are used to calculate an overall grade.
Prior to the A-F ratings, the TEA rated schools and districts on a pass or fail standard. Officials hope the new A-F grading system is more transparent and will help parents choose better schools and hold educators to a higher standard.
Due to Hurricane Harvey, all school districts in the surrounding Houston area have an accountability rating of "not rated (Harvey provision)." Though, all official grades for individual schools will be released in August 2019 by the TEA. Tribune's school explorer tool currently has letter grades for school districts and the previous pass-or-fail system for individual schools, which uses designations including "met standard," "met alternative standard" and "improvement required."
Use the Texas public schools database to learn more about the state’s 1,200 districts and 8,759 public schools, including hundreds of charter schools and alternative campuses. To navigate through information on demographics, academic performance, college readiness and average teacher salaries for each school or district, visit the website here.