The Texas Education Agency is replacing the elected school boards of the Beaumont, Connally and Lake Worth school districts, Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced Thursday.
State law allows Morath to either close a campus or appoint new leadership if at least one school in the district receives five consecutive failing grades in Texas’ academic accountability system. Each of the districts met that threshold.
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The takeovers add to the growing list of districts subject to state interventions, which also includes two of Texas’ largest: Fort Worth and Houston. The Fort Worth school board has said it plans to appeal the commissioner’s decision, which was announced in October.
The education agency said in August that five school districts were at risk of intervention after enduring five consecutive years of unsatisfactory ratings. Since then, it has announced plans to take over four of them: Fort Worth, Lake Worth, Connally and Beaumont ISDs. Morath has not said whether he plans to intervene in the fifth one, Wichita ISD.
Takeovers were once rare in Texas, but they have grown more common in the last decade, thanks to the 2015 law that made it easier for the state to step in after five consecutive F grades. It also expanded the commissioner’s ability to initiate special investigations, which could lead to an intervention.
That A-F grading system is largely based on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, a standardized exam that lawmakers voted this year to replace in 2027.
Before 2015, El Paso experienced the only academic takeover in Texas, due to a widespread cheating scandal. Since the law’s passage, the education agency has officially taken over three districts because of low academic performance: Marlin, Shepherd and Houston.
Morath and state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles believe the Houston ISD intervention was warranted, and they tout as evidence the improved test scores in the two years since it started. Students have improved in every tested subject. None of the district’s campuses received an F on the state’s accountability ratings in the 2024-25 school year, a drastic improvement from the 56 underperforming campuses in 2022-23.
But the intervention has also run into strong criticism. Teacher departures have skyrocketed. Thousands of students have unenrolled. And improved test scores have sparked concern that the district has accomplished its gains, in part, because of a hyperfocus on testing and moving students into less rigorous math and science classes.
Alex Nguyen contributed to this report.
This is a developing story; check back for details.