HISD expecting good news when accountability ratings are released

HOUSTON – On Thursday, the Texas Education Agency will release its annual school accountability ratings.

Many within the Houston Independent School District believe the report will contain good news for the district, but it comes at a time when the school board faces a looming threat of a state takeover.

Ratings will be available at this website Thursday.

What are the state school accountability ratings?

This is the second year of a new system in which every school and district in Texas is given a letter grade A through F, based on performance in a variety of categories from academics to financial management.

What was HISD's rating last year?

Officially, TEA left HISD and several other local districts unrated last year because many schools could not be included in the evaluation due to Hurricane Harvey. But district leaders said their overall rating would have been a "B" without those excluded campuses.

"Last year, according to the TEA's own rankings, HISD had a B. Everyone understands A, B, C, D, F. HISD had a B, this board has to be doing something right," said Andy Dewey, executive vice president of the Houston Federation of Teachers.

The district celebrated improved numbers at many of its schools, but still faced the threat of school and/or district takeover if four low performing schools did not improve.

What is the district expecting from the report this year?

Several people told KPRC 2 News that HISD is expecting more good news in this year's report. Kashmere High School is expected to meet state standards for the first time in 10 years.

"It's because of HISD and the school's commitment to wrap-around services and smaller class sizes, so as a city we should have faith that the direction HISD is going is a direction that's going to be positive in the future," said Ruth Kravetz, co-founder of Community Voices for Public Education and a longtime HISD employee.