District News

OCISD Earns “B” Rating In State Accountability

Image depicting OCISD Earns “B” Rating In State Accountability

Ore City ISD has received a state accountability rating of “B” from the Texas Education Agency in the latest ratings released Monday.

In the first official ratings handed down by the TEA since before the COVID-19 pandemic, OCISD scored an 88 out of a possible 100 points and was within just two points of earning an “A,” which is the highest rating possible.

“Ore City ISD is grateful for the hard work our students and staff have put in to achieve the district score of 88,” said OCISD Superintendent Lynn Heflin. “The district will continue to use the state accountability system to identify our strengths as well as the areas where we need to make improvements.”

The TEA released 2022 A–F accountability ratings for districts and campuses on Monday, the first to be issued since 2019 due to two years of COVID-related pauses. 

Over 1100 districts and 8,451 campuses were rated this year, with returns showing promising signs of progress in Texas’s efforts to catch students up academically. Driven by significant gains in student academic growth, 2022 saw 25 percent of districts and 33 percent of campuses improve their letter grade from 2019. Eighteen percent of high-poverty campuses in Texas were rated an A, continuing to prove that demographics do not equal destiny.

Established by House Bill 22 during the 85th Texas Legislature, the A–F accountability system provides educators, parents, and communities with a transparent view of the academic performance of Texas public schools based on three domains: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps. This year, to align with Senate Bill 1365, districts and campuses received an A, B or C rating or were assigned a label of Not Rated: Senate Bill 1365, both overall and in each domain. This Not Rated: Senate Bill 1365 label was applied when the domain or overall scaled score for a district or campus was less than 70. Forty-two districts and 564 campuses received this label. 

Ore City ISD received its highest score in the domain of School Progress, achieving a 92 out of a possible 100. School Progress shows how students perform over time and how the district's performance compares to other districts with similar economically disadvantaged student populations.

The district scored an 86 in Student Achievement, which measures whether students met expectations on the annual STAAR test. It also measures graduation rate and how prepared students are for success after high school. OCISD scored an 80 in the third domain, Closing The Gaps, which measures how well a district is ensuring that all student groups are successful.

The overall rating which produced the 88 out of 100 “B” accountability rating measures how much students are learning in each grade and whether or not they are ready for the next grade. It also shows how well a school or district prepares their students for success after high school in college, the workforce, or the military.

Despite the challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic which completely shut the 2019-2020 school year down in mid-March and forced students out of the classroom for the final two months of the year, OCISD increased its score from the previous accountability ratings released in August of 2019. The district was rated as a “C” district in 2019, with a score of 79, but increased its grade by nine points in the ratings released Monday.

More information on OCISD’s rating and performance, along with other districts in the state, can be found online at www.txschools.gov.