PECOS, Texas — Several Texas school districts have filed another lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency.
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD (PBTISD) is once again a part of that group that is preventing the TEA from releasing its A-F accountability ratings.
“I’m a big fan of accountability, but I want to know the rules before we start playing the game and I want it to be fair," said Brent Jaco, superintendent of PBTISD.
The TEA has again been called into question, this time over how the STAAR Test was graded.
"We saw a significant, very large percentage of increase for the number of zeroes that school districts across the state received as a result of the AI grading," Jaco said.
Artificial intelligence grading was introduced for some of the short answer and essay portion.
Jaco said they are still using STAAR Test results to help improve, but how exactly some of the AI works has not been disclosed.
“There are questions related to this exam, questions that TEA has not been forthcoming to answer and so that’s the reason for this lawsuit," Jaco said.
When it comes to TEA's A-F accountability ratings system, Jaco believes it’s not fair to a large portion of students that his school district serves.
“The current system is disproportionally designed to negatively impact emerging bilingual students, economically disadvantaged students and our special education population," Jaco said.
The TEA provided the following statement in response to the new lawsuit:
"The A-F accountability system is good for kids. It is why the legislature adopted a strong A-F framework to help improve the quality of student learning across the state, give parents a clear understanding of how well their schools are performing and establish clear expectations for school leaders so they can better serve students. It is disappointing that a small group of school boards and superintendents opposed to fair accountability and transparency have once again filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing A-F ratings from being issued and keeping families in the dark about how their schools are doing.
TEA is reviewing the filing and will evaluate appropriate next steps." - Texas Education Agency
Jaco is confident in the work PBTISD is doing.
“In other diagnostic tests that we have we can see the growth that we’re doing," Jaco said.
However, their fight for more transparency at the state level continues.
A similar but separate lawsuit was filed in 2023 by Texas school districts against the TEA, which also included PBTISD, along with Fort Stockton ISD and Ector County ISD.