(The Center Square) – The Texas Education Agency is taking over three more public school districts: Beaumont ISD, Connally ISD and Lake Worth ISD. This brings the total to four this year and five overall.
State law requires the TEA to take over failing school districts after a campus receives failing academic ratings for at least five consecutive years. In each case, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath has chosen to replace superintendents and school boards.
Morath told each district how an “unacceptable academic performance” in one school year is generally characterized by less than one-third of students reaching their grade level and less than one-half demonstrating a year’s worth of academic growth. When this pattern continues for multiple years, students “develop significant academic gaps,” representing a “fundamental failure of the school district and a complete inability to take the necessary action to effectively educate students,” he said…