(The Center Square) – New accountability ratings for Texas public schools have been published showing more than 25% increased their letter grade over the year.
The Texas Education Agency released its 2025 A-F Accountability Ratings for public school systems and campuses statewide.
It includes ratings for 1,208 public school districts and 9,084 campuses in 2025. Among them, 24% of districts and 31% of campuses improved their letter grade over the year. Most campuses maintained their previous rating; 15% got lower grades. Of the high-poverty campuses in Texas, 43% were rated A or B, “continuing to prove that demographics do not equal destiny,” TEA said.
The same message was issued by Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles, who reported that for the first time since the ratings began no school in Houston had an F rating, The Center Square reported. The district had been taken over by the state and after two years of Miles at the helm improvements across the board have been reported.
“In our profession, we have talked about how zip code is often destiny,” meaning often poor performing schools are located in lower income communities. In some parts of town, you can look at a map of where the failing schools are,” he said.
“In two years, we’ve changed that totally. You cannot find a zip code where there aren’t some high performing schools and A and B schools. Every child, no matter where they are in Houston, no matter where they are on this map, has a high-performance school near them,” he said. “That’s never been the case in Houston or any other large urban district. This is what our students have been doing. The success for our kids is phenomenal in just two years.”
In one year, 63 districts moved from below an A grade to an A grade; 757 campuses also moved from below an A in 2024 to an A in 2025, according to the data.
The Texas legislature created the A–F Accountability System in 2017 “to provide clear and consistent information on how schools are performing in three key areas: Student Achievement, School Progress and Closing the Gaps.” The purpose was to “drive continuous improvement,” ensuring that “all students, regardless of background, have access to a high-quality education that prepares them for success after graduation.”
“A-F Ratings help educators and school systems celebrate successes and focus support where it is needed most,” TEA says. It was structured to “balance rigor, fairness and transparency; establishing goals for preparing students for postsecondary success while acknowledging their effort and progress.”
Members of the public can view the ratings at TXschools.gov. A map feature enables users to search for schools by address and compare schools across selected data points.
TEA also released its 2024 ratings, which had been prevented from being released due to a lawsuit. After a settlement was reached, TEA released it saying doing so “reestablishes critical transparency for Texas families, communities and school leaders after two years of lawsuit-induced delays.”
Releasing the data “marks a return to clarity and accountability. With the release of the 2025 A–F Ratings, we are reinforcing our commitment to transparency and to providing accurate, readily available information that helps every family understand how their school is doing,” TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said.
