Ugh.
Austin ISD’s effort to stave off a possible state takeover suffered a major setback Thursday after the Texas Education Agency rejected the district’s plan to hand three struggling middle schools to an external nonprofit operator.
In a letter sent Thursday to Superintendent Matias Segura, TEA officials said Texas Council for International Studies failed to demonstrate a record of turning around campuses with repeated failing accountability ratings and, in some cases, partnerships with the nonprofit had produced worse academic outcomes.
District leaders applied for the partnership in March under the state’s SB 1882 program, which can shield campuses from certain state sanctions when districts turn over operations to outside organizations. But without the partnership protections, Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools remain on a collision course with state intervention if accountability scores do not improve this year. Under state law, Education Commissioner Mike Morath must either close campuses or replace the elected school board with an appointed board of managers when a campus receives five consecutive failing accountability ratings.
According to the letter, the district is still free to pursue the partnership, but would not receive a reprieve from accountability ratings that is offered under the SB 1882 program.
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Public information records previously obtained by Austin Current showed Texas Council for International Studies was the only organization to submit a bid to operate the three schools. Board members approved the sole bidder just days before the March 31 deadline to submit an application for SB 1882 benefits in a high-stakes move to skirt state intervention. According to Thursday’s letter, district leaders submitted additional information to the state in May before the application was ultimately denied.
Texas Council for International Studies has led 16 SB 1882 partnerships since 2019 across San Antonio, Edgewood and Longview ISDs with mixed results. The nonprofit, which was founded as a partner organization focused on supporting students and schools implementing the International Baccalaureate programs in Texas, meets only two of three criteria for SB 1882 partnerships added by state education leaders as of March 2020, according to TEA’s letter.
While it has been in existence for at least three years and managed multiple campuses, Texas Council for International Studies does not have a track record of managing campuses to academic success or significantly improving academic performance, TEA’s letter said.
Only five of the 16 campuses led by Texas Council for International Studies under SB 1882 partnerships since 2019 faced “D” or “F” ratings at the time the partnerships were approved and three of those schools have either received worse ratings or failed to improve since, according to TEA.
That Austin ISD has been at risk of takeover is in itself not news, it’s been on the radar for at least the past school year. This failed attempt to avert the possibility of takeover via charter partnership was news to me, and it’s a bit of a puzzler. Like, why was this apparently questionable outfit the only bidder? Was Austin ISD’s money not green enough for Third Future Schools? Austin ISD parents and teachers ought to demand some answers about that. What happens next is up to how the students at those schools did on the STAAR tests, and what Mike Morath chooses to do if one or more of those schools failed to measure up. As I’ve had to say quite a bit these days, I wish Austin ISD well. I very much hope they don’t have to walk this path that we’ve been going down.
Those three schools got a complete overhaul last year (as in, their entire staffs were moved elsewhere and replaced), but their starting point was basically consistent D/F ratings. So one year later, after moving a whole group of new teachers in there who had no relationships or roots in the community, quelle surprise things did not significantly improve.
Turns out maybe it isn’t the teachers’ fault.
So no wonder no one would want to take over operations there. Whoever did was guaranteed to fail, and then what would CL say?