A Texas judge has blocked the state education agency from adopting a new set of rating standards that would have significantly downgraded the assessment grade of a number of public schools in the state.
In a Thursday ruling, Travis County Judge Catherine Mauzy blocked the Texas Education Agency from implementing a new ratings system for schools in the state. The new system would have seen numerous schools decline in their state ratings by multiple letter grades on an A-F scale.
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In a statement, the education agency blasted the ruling and vowed to appeal it, saying it "completely disregards the laws of this state and for the foreseeable future, prevents any A-F performance information from being issued to help millions of parents and educators improve the lives of our students."
"The A-F system has been a positive force in Texas public education, supporting improved outcomes for students across the state, especially those most vulnerable," the state agency continued. "There have been many constructive conversations about the methodology with districts and among legislators. Though about 10% of our school system leaders disagreed with the methods used in A-F enough to file this lawsuit, the complete absence of public performance information means that 100% of our school systems cannot take actions based on these ratings, stunting the academic growth of millions of Texas kids."
The ruling came after scores of Texas school districts sued the state agency, alleging the assessment changes were not made in a proper manner and that it would harm their ability to retain teachers.
Frisco Independent School District Superintendent Mike Waldrip called the standards "arbitrary" and implied that they would show his school district was failing.
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“Accountability is an important orienting aspect for a school district," Waldrip said, according to the Texas Tribune. "However, the arbitrary application of new measures without the required advanced notice will potentially give the appearance that schools across the state, including Frisco ISD, are declining."
Texas legislators are currently deadlocked in a fight with Gov. Greg Abbott over school choice in the state. According to NBC DFW, some superintendents have reportedly suggested that the change in assessments for public schools was deliberately done to make public schools look bad and bolster support for school choice.