Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD, or SCUCISD, received a “B” for the 2022-23 school year with 83 out of 100 possible points in the Texas Education Agency’s 2022-23 accountability ratings for school districts statewide. The ratings were released April 24 after a nearly two-year delay due to lawsuits, TEA officials said.

SCUCISD received 87 out of 100 possible points for the 2021-22 school year, when Texas school districts last received ratings through the A-F system. TEA officials said the methods of calculating 2022-23 ratings were “updated to more accurately reflect performance.”

The breakdownThe state’s A-F accountability system was designed to measure how much students are learning in each grade and whether or not they are ready for the next grade, the TEA website states.

According to the TEA’s latest accountability report, SCUCISD joins 42.4% of traditional school districts across Texas to earn a “B” rating.

The district’s enrollment in 2022-23 was 15,519 students. Of those, 35.5% were economically disadvantaged, 15.7% were in special education programs and 4.4% were emergent bilingual students, TEA data shows.

Average SCUCISD attendance rate in 2022-23 was 93.3%, and 20.7% of SCUCISD students were chronically absent, missing 10% or more of the 2022-23 school year.

Of the SCUCISD campuses that received ratings:

• Zero earned an A
• Seven earned a B
• Six earned a C
• Three earned a D
• Zero earned an F

"We are not okay with any campus earning a 'D,'" Deanna Jackson, SCUCISD executive director of communications and community engagement, told Community Impact. "That is not aligned with our commitment to excellence, and we are working urgently and deliberately to improve outcomes in those schools. That said, we will not be defined by a single score. Instead, we will be driven by our relentless commitment to academic excellence for every student on every campus."

SCUCISD schools with 35% or more economically disadvantaged populations averaged a 75, while campuses where less than 35% of the students were economically disadvantaged averaged an 81, according to TEA data.

Elementary schools averaged a 71.8, middle schools averaged a 83.8 and high schools averaged a 82.3.

The TEA report also included a “What If” score for 2021-22, applying 2021-22 school district results to updated standards. SCUCISD’s 2021-22 What If score was a “B” with 80, down from the 87 score earned that year.

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The release of the 2022-23 ratings follows an April 3 ruling by Texas’ 15th Court of Appeals, which overturned a lower court’s injunction that had blocked the 2023 ratings for over a year. In August 2023, over 100 school districts sued TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, arguing the agency’s revamped accountability system was “unlawful” and would unfairly harm school districts.

Jackson said that the district's rating is "within range" of what they anticipated, particularly within the "recalibrated accountability framework" of the TEA.

"To be clear, we are all for accountability; it's important," Jackson told Community Impact. "However, we desire stability in how we are measured because that matters just as much. Constantly changing the rules and criteria makes it difficult to evaluate true year-over-year growth as we plan and monitor our progress."

The TEA remains blocked from issuing ratings for the 2023-24 school year due to a separate lawsuit, which is pending in the state appeals court. Morath also said the TEA intends to release ratings for 2024-25 on Aug. 15, per state law.

“A-F ratings are very public, and so that is a leadership challenge that our leaders bear, but this is the cross that we bear for being publicly funded and having the public’s children in our schools. It’s up to us to operate with the highest degree of transparency to deliver the best outcomes that we can for our kids,” Morath said April 22.

Hannah Norton contributed to this report.