Texas Voters Back Annual Testing and A-F School Grading to Boost Student Outcomes

Only a week into the 89th Texas Legislature, it is already clear that public education will continue to be a major topic of conversation. Recent poll results show it is also an important issue for Texas voters, who expect transparent and reliable information on how well their students and schools are performing.

Specifically, in a recent representative statewide poll conducted by Ragnar Research Partners, over two-thirds of Texas voters expressed support for “annual testing of students’ mastery of education standards,” a crucial function of our public schools that equips our policymakers and school leaders with the information they need to better understand student performance and make improvements. This high level of support was consistent across ideological and party identification of respondents.

Even more striking, over 80% of Texas voters support “ensuring that schools and districts receive an A through F letter grade, so parents and policymakers have information on school performance,” a position supported by large majorities of “conservatives” (87%) and “liberals” (75%) alike.

These results come at a time when Texas has not had any letter grades awarded to schools and districts for the past two years due to an ongoing series of lawsuits. A full set of A-F letter grades has been delayed even longer, since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which means consistently low-performing schools across the state continue to lack the interventions and support needed to turn around student achievement.

“As it relates to school accountability, the current state of affairs is unsustainable, and these poll results reflect that,” said Kate Greer, Managing Director of Policy for the Commit Partnership. “Texas parents and taxpayers deserve a clear picture of how well their students and schools are doing, and state legislators can provide it by preserving annual state assessments and restoring our state’s full A-F accountability system.”

‍