Last month, the Austin Independent School District stunned community members by shuttering a South Austin campus just weeks before classes were set to begin. District officials projected the campus was set to score another failing grade on the state’s A-F rating system.
Texas school systems have often resorted to closing struggling schools to avoid harsh state consequences, but a new Texas Education Agency rule will eliminate that option in many cases, making state intervention more likely.
The rule, which takes effect this month, takes the failing grades attached to a closed school and assigns them to the new school where the largest share of students from that closed campus are reassigned. Districts won’t be able to erase the history of a chronically failing school by closing it unless they move students to an A- or B-rated campus…