Two Amarillo Schools Receive Failing Grades According To Report

For the first time in six years, parents across Texas are finally getting to see a comprehensive grade for the public school systems in Texas. We haven't seen a full accountability report since 2019, and getting this one wasn't exactly easy.

The report we are finally getting to see, however, isn't even the most recent one. The report that has been released is the 2023 accountability report, and getting this released didn't come without a huge fight.

Why Haven't We Gotten A Report In Six Years

There's so much to unpack here as to WHY we haven't seen a report in a while. Let's go back to the 2019 report since it was the last one prior to this. 2020 and 2021 simply didn't have reports due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It wouldn't have been an accurate representation of how schools were doing with everything that had to be changed, not to mention the school-from-home aspect.

In 2022, the report exempted the lowest-scoring schools from its report, therefore, it wasn't a truly complete report. The 2023 report will be the first one to show every school and its grade.

The Grading Refresh

It was in 2023 that the TEA rolled out a newly designed STAAR testing system. It moved to an online format, with more "shorter-written" answers required than the previous testing.

The refresh also included reading passages. Those were designed to reference information that the students should've learned in class. Educators and school districts were not happy with the changes to the STAAR format, and it created some legal battles once test results were given to the districts.

Read More: Your Kids Will Love This: Loft Is Now Amarillo's Preeminent Place For Kids

Why Did The Districts Take This To Court

Roughly 100 school districts across Texas banded together and sued Education Commissioner Mike Morath in August 2023. They claimed that the rubric had been unfairly recalibrated, and that would inherently create lower test scores. They also complained that the board waited too long to communicate the changes to the districts.

Travis County State District Judge Catherine Mauzy ultimately issued a temporary injunction to halt the release of the scores due to the arguments made by the districts.

TEA Appeal And Release Of Scores

The Texas Education Agency immediately appealed the ruling by Judge Mauzy, thus setting off another hearing that would need to be held in order to get the scores released to the public.

This battle would last well over a year, but earlier this month, the appeals court announced that the scores can be released to the public.

Why Aren't We Getting The 2024 Scores

Simply put, there is another lawsuit that is similar to the one filed against the 2023 scores being released.

This lawsuit was much smaller in scale, as only five districts went in on this one. They claimed in the lawsuit that the previous issues and concerns had not been handled or fixed, therefore, they wanted the 2024 scores withheld.

How Did Amarillo ISD Perform In 2023

As a whole, Amarillo ISD received a 'B' rating, scoring 80 out of 100. The overall report shows things such as student enrollment by race/ethnicity, as well as type, such as special education or economically disadvantaged. It also shows attendance rate and teacher information, among other things.

Across the district, two schools received an 'F' grade, both scoring a 57 out of 100. Fannin Middle School and Hamlet Elementary were the two schools receiving a failing grade in the district. You can see the Fannin report card here and the Hamlet report card here.

How Did Canyon ISD Perform In 2023

Overall, Canyon ISD performed a bit better than Amarillo ISD. While Canyon still received a 'B' grade, they scored an 85 out of 100 overall.

No schools inside Canyon ISD received a failing grade, and only three schools received a 'C' grade. Those schools were Lakeview Elementary, with a 77 out of 100, Pinnacle Intermediate, which received a 76 out of 100, and Randall Junior High scored a 78 out of 100 overall.