(The Center Square) – The Texas Education Agency is taking over three more public school districts: Beaumont ISD, Connally ISD and Lake Worth ISD. This brings the total to four this year and five overall.
State law requires the TEA to take over failing school districts after a campus receives failing academic ratings for at least five consecutive years. In each case, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath has chosen to replace superintendents and school boards.
Morath told each district how an “unacceptable academic performance” in one school year is generally characterized by less than one-third of students reaching their grade level and less than one-half demonstrating a year’s worth of academic growth. When this pattern continues for multiple years, students “develop significant academic gaps,” representing a “fundamental failure of the school district and a complete inability to take the necessary action to effectively educate students,” he said.
District leaders’ inability “to implement effective changes to improve the performance of students in the district or at [a failing] campus” necessitated state intervention and is in the public interest, Morath said.
In Beaumont ISD, ML King Middle School and Fehl-Price Elementary earned a fifth consecutive unacceptable academic accountability rating after the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years.
King Middle School hasn’t earned an acceptable academic accountability rating in 11 years; Fehl-Price Elementary “has never met an acceptable standard since it opened in the 2011-12 school year,” Morath wrote district leaders.
BISD’s low academic achievement is a long-standing issue; in the 2018-19 school year, only 30% of students were at grade level, according to TEA data. This is after the TEA took over BISD in 2014 citing financial mismanagement, issues with board governance and special education. The TEA returned control to BISD in 2020 only to resume control five years later.
Systemwide BISD leaders have “demonstrated a chronic inability to support students so that they can learn and achieve at high levels. Across all grades and subjects, only 30% of students in Beaumont ISD are meeting grade level. This is 20 percentage points below state average,” Morath said.
BISD Superintendent Shannon Allen said at a press conference she disagreed with the decision and was “very frustrated and disappointed” by it.
In Connally ISD, near Waco, Connally Elementary School and Connally Junior High both earned five consecutive F ratings. In the 2023-24 school year, the year in which Connally Junior High earned its fifth consecutive unacceptable rating, four out of five campuses earned Fs. During the 2024-25 school year, the year in which Connally Elementary earned its fifth consecutive unacceptable rating, out of five campuses, three received Fs and one received a D. In three consecutive school years, the number of campuses that were rated “academically unacceptable” doubled, Morath said.
CISD “has demonstrated a chronic inability to support students to learn and achieve at high levels. Across all grades and subjects, only 24% of students in Connally ISD are meeting grade level. This is 26 percentage points below state average,” Morath said in a letter to board members, noting systemic failures for years. “Ultimately, the Connally ISD school board has, collectively, through action and inaction over many years, failed its students.”
In response, the district said it’s “moving forward with our school improvement intiatives [sic], and we are already seeing impressive results. As we transition away from local governance over to the leadership of state appointed officials, we hope to see this progress grow even further.”
Superintendent Jill Bottelberghe told parents she remained “fully convinced that our district has laid the foundation for truly impressive results in the future. We have put systems and initiatives in place that, if implemented, will help every one of our students reach their full potential.”
In Lake Worth ISD, near Fort Worth, the Marilyn Miller Language Academy earned its fifth F rating; it’s been eight years since it earned an acceptable academic accountability rating, according to TEA data. Five of its six campuses have rated “academically unacceptable” for consecutive years earning between C and F ratings, Morath said.
“Across all grades and subjects, only 22% of students in Lake Worth ISD are meeting grade level,” Morath wrote the district leaders. “This is 28 percentage points below state average. Lake Worth ISD’s low level of student achievement is a long-standing issue, predating the COVID-19 disruptions, and has gotten worse recently. Going back to the 2018-19 school year, only 27% of Lake Worth ISD students met grade level.”
In response, Superintendent Dr. Mark Ramirez said the district accepted TEA’s decision, viewed it as “an opportunity to accelerate our progress” and remained “committed to transparency, accountability and partnership” throughout the process.
‘DOOM LOOP’ LOOSENS AROUND TRUMP AND GOP IN START OF ‘TURNAROUND’
The three December takeovers follow TEA’s 2023 takeover of Houston ISD and its takeover of Fort Worth ISD in October, The Center Square reported.
Within two years, and for the first time since the state ratings began, no Houston school has received an F grade, and more than 750 schools moved to an A grade this year, The Center Square reported.
