The Texas Training Company’s 2025 A-F accountability rankings affirm that the Houston area is trending up, with big-city programs exhibiting actual, however uneven, features.
TEA framed the discharge as a long-awaited reset after two years of litigation-related delays that saved dad and mom at the hours of darkness.
“That is about setting objectives. It’s about what we wish to be true for our kids. I would like them to have their time tables memorized at [by the] third grade. And once they graduate from highschool, I would like them to have the ability to go off and be as profitable as doable.”
Mike Morath, TEA Commissioner of Training
“I wanna [want to] just be sure you have entry to a occupation that may make sufficient cash to maintain your self and your loved ones and you’ll develop and expertise all of the desires that America has to supply for many who are educated.”
For Houston-area college districts, the rankings mirror their progress prior to now 12 months.
To finish the TEA’s intervention in Houston ISD, the commissioner has set three predominant exit standards:
(1) HISD will need to have no multi-year academically unacceptable campuses underneath the state A-F accountability system
(2) The college district should come into compliance with state and federal special-education necessities
(3) The college board should show efficient governance centered on pupil outcomes.
Accountability rankings are central to the factors, as sustained acceptable rankings assist clear the trail to exit. In apply, TEA has explicitly tied the timeline to those metrics, extending the takeover by way of at the least June 2027 whereas monitoring rankings, together with high-visibility campuses like Wheatley Excessive College assembly “C or higher” efficiency for consecutive years. The commissioner retains discretion to declare the exit as soon as these targets are met and sustained.
By the numbers
Houston ISD (HISD), the state’s largest district, earned a B (82) total, a notch up from current years and in line with TEA’s dashboard view for 2024-25.
Katy ISD posted a rating of 88 (B), a efficiency that district officers and native retailers have highlighted as among the many strongest in Texas’ greatest districts. Klein ISD adopted with 86 (B), Cypress-Fairbanks earned 85 (B); Fort Bend and Spring Department every landed at 80 (B).
A number of North and East Houston programs stay within the center tier: Humble ISD at 77 (C), Alief at 75 (C) and Aldine at 73 (C). Whereas these letters counsel room to develop, the trajectories are noteworthy.
Aldine, lengthy a bellwether for post-pandemic restoration amongst high-poverty districts, has been singled out as one of many state’s most improved districts over the previous two years.
Houston ISD’s surge
HISD’s total rating masks a dramatic campus-level shift. Superintendent Mike Miles mentioned 74% of HISD campuses at the moment are A or B, up from 44% two years in the past. The variety of failing faculties (F-rated) fell from 56 in the beginning of the intervention in 2023 to zero in 2025, inserting 70,000 extra college students in A/B faculties in contrast with two years prior.
These claims align with Morath’s celebration of a number of HISD faculties leaping from F to A, a rarity statewide. Nonetheless, pockets of D-rated faculties stay and require sustained consideration.
“We had an enormous achievement hole and our Black and brown children have been behind their friends,” Miles mentioned. “There was a niche with their friends in Texas. In different phrases, a Black pupil in HISD was doing worse in math and language arts than black college students within the state of Texas by far. Two years later, we’ve narrowed the achievement hole considerably. We’re above our friends.”
Different college districts
Katy ISD (88/B): Continues to put up excessive marks throughout achievement and readiness measures and has been touted domestically for outperforming state averages
Klein (86/B) and Cy-Truthful (85/B): Giant suburban programs that sustained robust total performanceFort Bend (80/B) & Spring Department (80/B): Solidly within the B vary
Humble (77/C), Alief (75/C), Aldine (73/C): Total C rankings, however district leaders level to progress, particularly in closing gaps and attendance restoration
What the letter grades really measure
Texas’ A-F design is constructed to weigh three issues: Scholar Achievement (what college students know and might do), college progress (how far college students have come or how campuses have achieved in comparison with comparable comparability teams) and shutting the gaps (how effectively traditionally underserved teams are supported or how completely different pupil teams are performing).
“These are the objectives that our kids ought to obtain,” Morath mentioned. “We put these objectives out after which we measure ourselves in opposition to these objectives as a result of we have to know, ‘Did we do our job for our youngsters?’ Our job is to ensure that we equip them to pursue the trials of contemporary America.”
TEA’s statewide abstract reveals the share of higher-rated campuses rising versus 2024, reflecting broad enchancment after pandemic disruptions.
“The closing the gaps area appears individually at college students who’ve disabilities, how effectively they’ve grown academically over the course of the 12 months, how effectively they’ve been supported,” Morath advised the Defender. “It appears at households and college students who come from households of poverty and the way effectively they’ve been reaching their educational milestones. The system is designed to shine a light-weight on successes or lack thereof that faculties have with these pupil teams.”
Why this 12 months issues
This launch is the primary “regular” snapshot in years. TEA emphasised that public, comparable rankings are a transparency software for fogeys and a administration software for boards and superintendents deciding the place to focus on assets.
The info arrived amid intense debates over governance and educational fashions in Houston. For households, the takeaway is much less a few single letter and extra about development strains: Attendance, progress for emergent bilingual and particular training college students and whether or not extra campuses are transferring into A or B territory.
For fogeys selecting faculties, or advocating inside their present one, txschools.gov affords drill-downs by campus, together with multi-year tendencies and subgroup information.
