On their last report card from the state, 21 Dallas ISD schools got Ds or Fs, something teachers and students worked hard to fix.
"We would have essentially cut our 21 Ds and Fs in half, and that would have made more sense to our community in terms of a lot of work to do and we're moving in the right direction," said Stephanie Elizalde, superintendent, Dallas ISD.
Changes to the way grades are calculated means those schools won't see the improvements they've made reflected on this upcoming report card.
"I would never have any evaluation of any member of my team based on previous evaluation criteria, and at the end of the period of time that I'm going to evaluate them say I've changed my mind I'm going to evaluate you on something else," said Elizalde.
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Dallas ISD's Board of Trustees voted to join a lawsuit being filed by other smaller districts around the state challenging the changes being implemented by the Texas Education Agency this year, changes which Elizade said she estimates will cause 42 schools in Dallas ISD to drop not one but two letter grades, despite improving metrics on other tests.
"What impact might this have on morale?" asked Elizalde. "And therefore, actually the efficacy of the work that we do. Might it affect the workforce, which is already very challenging as we all know? The other one is its effect on neighborhoods, including real estate values."
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told NBC 5 earlier this year that the state always made small tweaks to the grading system every year, but schools complained saying it was too hard to keep up with an ever changing system. So a new plan was made to make big changes every five years, and that this is the year that is happening largely due to school district request.
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"You either save up all your changes and make them at one point or you make small changes year over year, over year. The plus side of saving up your changes is that for, you know, five years or so, you've got the ability to be accurate, year over year, performance comparisons," said Morath.
But schools said the changes weren't communicated ahead of time. Elizalde said she just wants time to know the rules of how they're being graded so she can prepare for them and that didn't happen.
This year of change comes as lawmakers are trying to let parents take tax dollars and shift them to private schools.
Proposed laws out there would only allow parents to get a voucher for private school, if their public school is failing. Elizalde said it's no coincidence this new system of grading creates more failing schools.
"There are a whole lot of very smart people who believe in certain outcomes. And I think it's very intentional," she said.
Dallas is the only large urban district to join the suit so far, but Fort Worth ISD is scheduled to take up the discussion in a special board meeting next week.
