Correction, Aug. 27, 2025, 12:46 p.m. Central: This story has been corrected to show that Connally ISD had two schools with five consecutive F ratings. The school district itself has a D rating, not an F.
The release this month of A-F state accountability ratings has put pressure on Waco-area school districts to turn around campuses with multiple years of failing grades or risk state intervention.
Under state law, the Texas Education Agency can take control of a school district when a campus fails the report card five years in a row.
Connally Independent School District is at that point after the Aug. 15 release of two years of accountability results.
The results show that Connally Elementary had five consecutive F ratings as of 2025. Connally Junior High School had five consecutive Fs ending in 2024, followed by a D in 2025. The 2024 numbers had previously been unreleased because of lawsuits from Texas school districts.
Waco ISD is not far behind, with South Waco receiving an F for 2025, its fourth consecutive failing grade. Overall, the district received a D grade.
Connally ISD officials say they have not heard from state officials about any plans for intervention. The district last year adopted a uniform math and English curriculum across the district to improve performance.
In an email to the Bridge, officials said the grades need to be taken in context.
“They also do not fully ‘tell the story’ of the circumstances that several of our students face,” the statement reads. “Individual data points don’t represent the large number of our students who are food insecure, at risk of homelessness, or from households with day-to-day struggles that are hard to imagine.”
Overall, Connally ISD received a D rating for both 2024 and 2025.
Waco ISD also received a D overall in both years. In 2025, eight of its 25 schools received Fs and six received Ds.
Among the F grades were South Waco Elementary School, which now has four consecutive years of failing grades and is under a turnaround plan.
Superintendent Tiffany Spicer, who started last year, is focused on making improvements through measuring student progress and intervening quickly when a student falls behind.
“We know we need to focus on growth,” said Spicer in a recorded interview posted on Waco ISD’s YouTube page. “If we do that as a system from our pre-K babies all the way to our seniors, we know we can meet the mark.”
Here are some more points to know about the accountability system and its impact on local schools.
How does TEA measure school districts?
TEA gives each school and each district a rating from A-F, based largely on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test.
You can find an interactive tool showing campus- and district-level trends at Waco-area schools here.
TEA judges a district on three factors: closing the gaps, student progress and student achievement.
Closing the gap is 30% of a district’s score, measuring progress schools are making within specific groups, such as students with special needs or language barriers.
The remaining 70% of a school district’s score is made up of student progress or student achievement. The category a district scores higher in is the score TEA uses.
What districts are at-risk of intervention?
The Texas Tribune reports that Connally, Lake Worth, Beaumont, Wichita Falls and Fort Worth school districts all have schools with five consecutive years of failing grades.
What has Connally ISD done to try to turn the tide?
The district has worked to implement a five-year strategic plan for faculty and student growth with Region 12 Education Service Center.
In addition, the district has added 11 half days of instructional days for students. It also adopted the state’s Bluebonnet math and language arts learning material to address concerns from TEA about students failing to meet or master grade standards, according to Connally ISD.
What happens in a state intervention?
A district with five consecutive years of failing ratings is at-risk for intervention from the Texas Education Agency.
TEA can choose to replace the democratically elected board with a board of managers, as has happened in Houston ISD, or close the campus or school district.
What other options do districts have?
Senate Bill 1882 gives districts with failing schools the option to create an in-district charter school in partnership with an open-enrollment charter school or a nonprofit.
Waco ISD had an in-district charter school system operating in partnership with Transformation Waco for six years until 2024.
Transformation Waco oversaw 2,000 students at five schools from prekindergarten to eighth grade. Seventy-five percent of students in the in-district charter met academic growth goals.
Transformation Waco officials said the pandemic rolled back progress the system was making with students. High-poverty schools recovered slower after the pandemic, according to Josh Wucher, chief communications and development officer at Transformation Waco.
