Last Friday, preliminary 2026 A-F Accountability Ratings were released by TEA.

According to TEA’s press release, 24% of all districts and campuses improved their rating from 2025, and the percentage of D and F districts was cut in nearly half. Additionally, 49% of all high-poverty campuses received an A or B rating, indicating that household income does not have to be a barrier to high achievement. 

About 22% of campuses are identified to be in need of improvement according to federal law. TEA has also published a list of districts and campuses that might be at risk for state-level interventions.  For these campuses, school improvement initiatives, such as turnaround plans and targeted interventions, may need to occur to improve outcomes. 

In this blog, we spotlight a school system, Jubilee Academies, that was able to remarkably increase their rating from a “D” into a “B” in just two short years, and we highlight the programs they implemented to accomplish this. As districts respond to 2026 ratings, we hope this bright spot can serve as a small example for when empowered school boards and effective district/campus leadership can change the trajectory of the students they serve.

A-F Ratings in Context

A-F ratings are determined based on the following:

• 70% of the overall score comes from the better of:
  • Student Achievement [Overall STAAR performance, College, Career, and Military Readiness, and Graduation Rates]
  • School Progress [Academic Growth, Accelerated Learning, and Relative Performance]
• 30% of the overall score comes from Closing the Gaps amongst disaggregated student populations [Academic Achievement and Growth, English Language Proficiency, and College, Career, and Military Readiness]

Simplistically, to earn an “A”, “B”, or “C” rating, a district must show that their students are successfully learning, growing, or preparing for life after high school – especially amongst under-served student groups – in accordance with state expectations. 

Why A-F Ratings Matter

While Texas’s A-F accountability system does not tell the whole story about campus and student experiences, it does provide a clear, comparable measure of district, campus, and student performance. It highlights gaps between student demographic groups that might otherwise go unnoticed, and encourages decisionmakers to think thoughtfully and strategically about allocating resources for struggling campuses and students. In practice, this means that Black, Hispanic, and low-income students who are most at risk for academic failure are properly identified for support rather than left ignored and invisible. 

Voters overwhelmingly agree that this is a crucial component of our education system. According to polling by respected, bipartisan polling organizations Impact Research and Up One Insights, 80% of voters believe it’s important for states to ensure their students can read, write, and do math on grade level by assessing students regularly and using those results to identify students who need more support. 

A-F ratings provide a transparent measure for parents to understand their student’s academic progress, district and campus leaders to make instructional, strategic, and budgetary decisions, and policymakers to evaluate systemic successes and failures for further state investment.

Turnaround Bright Spot: Jubilee Academies

Since the state has been issuing A-F ratings, several struggling school systems have been making timely course corrections to improve student outcomes. 

One bright spot of such turnarounds is Jubilee Academies, an open-enrollment public charter network with campuses in the San Antonio, Rio Grande Valley, and Coastal Bend regions. Despite having a student population that is 87% economically disadvantaged, 93% Hispanic, and 32% emergent bilingual, Jubilee Academies managed to improve their school ratings from a “D” in 2023 to a “B” in 2025. In the span of two short years, Jubilee was able to have multi-digit percentage point increases across several key metrics:

These remarkable improvements did not happen in a vacuum. In 2024, after reading the writing on the wall, the Board of Trustees hired a new superintendent who issued sweeping changes across the district. Among those changes was selection or further investment into many state initiatives that are proven to increase student outcomes:

• Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA): By the 2024-2025 school year, Jubilee Academies had a fully approved local designation system. According to the district, over 25% of its teachers will be TIA-designated for the upcoming school year.
• High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM): According to the district’s improvement plans, their federal grant entitlements, and data obtained from TEA, the district began utilizing HQIM in the 2023-2024 school year for Tier I and Tier II instruction (primary and supplemental instruction). 
• Additional Days School Year (ADSY): For the 2024-2025 school year, the district offered up to 30 additional instructional days to address the summer slide and provide more opportunities for struggling students to catch up.
• Early College High School (ECHS) and Career and Technical Education (CTE): The district invested more in CTE programming, converting one of their high school campuses into an early college high school and launching new CTE programs – including cybersecurity, nursing, culinary arts, and law enforcement – at their other high schools.
• Texas Instructional Leadership (TIL): The district received a TEA grant to participate in the TIL program, which provides training and coaching to campus and district leaders, especially for those executing campus improvement plans.

Along with an unwavering belief and commitment from district leadership that all children can succeed no matter the circumstance, these combined initiatives provided a tremendous reversal from negatively trending results. The success at Jubilee Academies is a welcome bright spot for when A-F ratings trigger a change in decision-making, ultimately resulting in significant improvement in student outcomes.

For more information, visit txschools.gov. These ratings are not final – districts have until September 11 to appeal their ratings.