FBISD Wins Appeal, Declared A Recognized District By TEA

The Fort Bend Independent School District has received notice from the Texas Education Agency that the agency had granted the district’s appeal filed in August to change the rating of Christa McAuliffe Middle School to Academically Acceptable from Academically Unacceptable.  This action automatically boosted the district’s rating to Recognized.  

The official letter from TEA Commissioner of Education Robert Scott reads, “Because the Academically Unacceptable rating for Christa McAuliffe was the only reason your district was prevented from earning a Recognized rating, granting the appeal also results in the district rating for Fort Bend ISD changing from Academically Acceptable to Recognized.”

Due to an earlier reported dropout rate of 2.2 percent in one group of students at McAuliffe – and the rate cannot exceed 1.8 percent, which was two students in this case – the campus was rated as Academically Unacceptable in July, preventing FBISD from becoming a Recognized district. 

McAuliffe’s TAKS scores qualified the campus for an Acceptable rating, but the campus automatically received the unacceptable rating due to the dropout rate within the one student group.  The district appealed McAuliffe’s rating to the TEA because former students labeled as dropouts were located and found to be enrolled in another school district.

“This is really great news for everyone in Fort Bend ISD, especially our students, teachers and administrators who have worked extremely hard and made significant academic progress each year for the past several years to obtain this well-deserved recognition.  It is important to note that the district’s achievement of Recognized was earned without the use of the Texas Projection Measure, or (TPM),” said Timothy Jenney, superintendent.  “We are also very pleased that McAuliffe Middle School has now officially been designated Acceptable and believe they are well on their way to achieving Recognized status,” said Jenney.