DALLAS — A growing number of school districts in Texas are joining a lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency.
Tuesday night, Plano and Fort Worth ISD boards voted to join Dallas, Red Oak, Crowley, Frisco, Prosper and Richardson ISDs, among several others, in the suit against TEA Commissioner Mike Morath. And Thursday, Arlington ISD and Denton ISD voted to join the lawsuit too.
Morath was at a public education event in Dallas after the boards voted.
As the keynote speaker of the State of Public Education event, Morath told the crowd of educators, "my charge by the State of Texas is to think of how to make it better for five and a half million souls in Texas public schools."
But not all the educators in attendance believe Morath is making things better.
The suit against the TEA centers around how the state assigns accountability grades to districts and their campuses.
Each year the TEA gives a district a letter grade ranging from an A to an F. Those ratings consider standardized test results, annual academic growth, graduation rates and college, career and military readiness.
Now, though, the TEA is changing some of the methodology of how it grades.
"The A-F accountability system is also being refreshed this year, with some changes to cut points and some changes to indicator methodology," the TEA's website explains.
The districts' lawsuit alleges the changes are unfair because the new methods "were not provided to districts in the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year as required by state statute."
The new method, they argue, "will lower performance ratings for many school districts and campuses even though their performance improved."
Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde spoke at the event after Morath, and did not shy away from addressing him.
"I would ask all of us, including the commissioner, do the grades correlate to student improvement, or do the grades contradict student performance?" she asked the crowd.
"Parents look at these letter grades to decide where to live," Elizalde later told WFAA. "So, this could have an impact on property values, it could have an impact on student enrollment...and every time you talk about enrollment, you're talking about dollars."
Morath left the event before WFAA was able to try to speak with him, but in February he told a Texas House committee, "We do in fact need to continue to set higher goals for our students. This is the reason you have an accountablity system."
Some critics have accused Morath, who was appointed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, of wanting lower grades to strengthen arguments for a voucher system.
Elizalde told WFAA she doesn't like to speculate but did say this.
"It is at the very least...disappointing that it appears all of these have been set up on a timeline.... leading up to a special session that may be discussing private school subsidies.
During WFAA's interview with Elizalde, Abbott announced his long-anticipated special session on school choice will start in October.
The TEA says it does not comment on pending litigation.