Dallas ISD Racks Up Lackluster STAAR Scores

Some of Dallas ISD’s STAAR scores for the 2022-2023 school year have been published by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), and they show the troubled district trailing well behind state averages.

The year-over-year trends indicated by the scores are equally concerning.

As previously reported by The Dallas Express, TEA published the general scores for public school systems across the state on Friday.

The scores covered Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology, and U.S. History end-of-course assessments in the spring of 2023. They showed decreases in the percentage of students scoring at grade level across multiple subjects, despite a notable increase in English I.

This same dynamic appears to have borne out at Dallas ISD.

The share of students scoring at grade level in Algebra I, Biology, and U.S. History dropped by 1% compared to the spring of 2022, and all three scores came substantially under the statewide averages logged for the share of students that scored at grade level.

Like the statewide scores, Dallas ISD saw a single-digit hike in English I scores (from 35% to 41%). The troubled district, however, still came in below the statewide average of 54%.

English II scores have stalled at 44%, with no increase or decrease from 2022.

The scores do not bode well for Dallas ISD, which faces a new landscape of accountability metrics. TEA is currently reforming how public school campuses and districts are graded, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.

“We want to make sure that we provide an accurate year-over-year performance picture so that parents can have that information to help inform them in terms of how they support their kiddos,” said TEA Commissioner Mike Morath at a media briefing in June, according to The Dallas Morning News.

In a ranking of big-city counties in Texas conducted by The Dallas Express based on the number of campuses scoring a D or F in student achievement outcomes for the 2021-2022 school year, Dallas County came in last. This was in no small part due to the 57 schools that scored a D and 29 that got an F in Dallas ISD.

The latest STAAR scores come on the heels of a recent poll that found a majority of Texans are in favor of school choice legislation, which would allow taxpayer money allotted by the state for education spending to be used by families at whatever schools they wish, whether public or private.

In a previous interview with The Dallas Express, James Quintero of the Texas Public Policy Foundation noted that parents have been seeking alternatives to traditional public schools in recent years over a variety of concerns.

“Traditional K-12 schools are hemorrhaging enrollment due to growing concerns over content, quality, and the politicization of the classroom. This steep decline is evidence that parents are ready for something different, something better,” Quintero said.

School choice legislation, which has been one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s top policy priorities in 2023, stalled during the regular session but is expected to be the subject of an upcoming special session.