Two schools received a fifth failure triggering state intervention that could include closing the campus or taking over the board. (Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
Editor's note: Austin ISD recently appealed the failing ratings of Webb and Burnet middle schools to the Texas Education Agency, after press time. Read the latest update here.
Austin ISD is subject to potential state intervention after Burnet and Webb middle schools each received a fifth consecutive failing accountability rating, according to Texas Education Agency data released Aug. 14. State law requires the commissioner to either close a campus with five consecutive failing ratings or replace the district's elected board with a board of managers.
Any closure or takeover would not happen immediately. A decision could come as early as January, superintendent Matias Segura said during an Aug. 13 board information session.
What's happening
Though the district has reached the state accountability threshold, the ratings are not yet official.
“We saw today preliminary results related to the performance of campuses in that district and in districts all over the state,” Education Commissioner Mike Morath told reporters Aug. 14. “The ratings still have to be finalized. We want to wait to see what that looks like, and we also want to evaluate how well that school district, as a system, is trying to improve results for all kids.”
AISD is the only Texas district that may be subject to state intervention based on the 2026 ratings, a TEA spokesperson confirmed to CommunityImpact.
How we got here
2025:
Apr. 24 → TEA releases delayed 2022-23 ratings. Burnet, Dobie and Webb get 2nd F.
Jun. 26 → Board approves turnaround plans for all three campuses.
Aug. 15 → TEA releases 2023-24 and 2024-25 ratings. All three get a 4th F.
Dec. 11 → AISD begins weighing an 1882 partnership.
2026:
Mar. 26 → Board approves a 3-year TCIS partnership.
May 28 → TEA rejects the partnership application.
Jul. 20 → AISD and TCIS end the partnership.
Aug. 14→ Burnet and Webb receive a 5th consecutive F. AISD reaches the state-intervention threshold.
What a takeover would mean
Students at Burnet and Webb started the 2026-27 school year at their assigned schools on Aug. 18, and a state takeover would not necessarily change their campus.
If Morath appoints a board of managers, the appointed board would replace AISD's nine elected trustees, per state law. The commissioner also would appoint a superintendent, and the board of managers would have the same authority as the elected board, including the ability to amend the district budget.
In other words, Austin voters would temporarily lose control of the district's governing board.
A takeover would not automatically end when the district's ratings improve. Under state law, Austin ISD would have to meet specific conditions before elected trustees could return. Trustees would return three at a time until all nine seats were again elected.
Campus closure is the other option available to the commissioner. That would apply to the campus that triggered the intervention.
What happens next
Now that the Sept. 11 appeals deadline has passed, TEA will review any appeals and finalize ratings by Dec. 11 as outlined in its 2026 timeline. Segura said Aug. 13 that, based on what he has observed in other districts, the commissioner could notify Austin ISD in January or early spring.
Fort Worth ISD and Beaumont ISD reached the five-year threshold in August 2025 and received formal TEA notices months later, in October and December, agency records show. Beaumont's eventual takeover followed what TEA described as a review of district data, systems, leadership and student results.
In Wichita Falls ISD, TEA appointed a conservator after the district closed Kirby Middle School and expanded a charter partnership. Legal challenges can stretch the timeline even further. A lawsuit delayed Houston ISD's takeover for more than three years before the state formally notified the district in March 2023 and took control that June, per TEA records.
The district has not said whether it will appeal the Burnet or Webb ratings, and Segura said he has not spoken with TEA about its plans.
The big picture
Since 2017, Texas has rated districts and campuses A-F based on student achievement, school progress and closing gaps, as stated in the agency’s 2026 manual.
AISD improved from a 77 last year to an 81 this year, its best overall rating in four years, according to Community Impact reporting. Dobie also broke its four-year F streak with a D. But Burnet and Webb each reached five consecutive failing ratings, which can trigger districtwide intervention under state law, regardless of the district’s overall rating.
AISD officials have pointed to preliminary 2025-26 STAAR and end-of-course results as evidence of progress, including Algebra I passing rates of 100% at Burnet, 100% at Dobie and 85% at Webb. But Algebra I is taken by a self-selected group of students who take the course early, as stated on the district’s secondary student website, so those results do not represent an entire grade level. At Dobie, 89% of seventh-graders scored below grade level in math, AISD figures show.
What it might look like
Four Texas school districts were taken over by the state this spring: Beaumont, Connally, Fort Worth and Lake Worth ISDs, CommunityImpact has reported. Eight Texas districts currently operate under state-appointed boards of managers, per TEA records.
HISD's takeover, now Texas' longest-running, began in June 2023 when the state dissolved the elected board. Mike Miles became superintendent, and the district implemented its New Education System model, previous CommunityImpact coverage shows.
Houston's ratings improved over the next two years. A- and B-rated campuses increased from 93 to 170, while D- and F-rated campuses fell from 121 to 41, per district data Community Impact reviewed. Morath nevertheless extended state control through June 2027, saying two years was not enough time to repair district systems he described as having been broken for decades.
In the meantime, Houston voters have continued electing trustees to those seats even though newly elected members hold no governing power until the transition begins, Community Impact previously reported.
The takeover also brought costs and controversy. HISD lost roughly 13,200 students, about 7% of its enrollment, in the first two years after the takeover, according to a University of Houston report cited by Community Impact. The district later voted to close 12 schools and authorized staff cuts.
What they're saying
Morath has argued that intervention has improved academic outcomes in Texas districts where it has occurred.
At an Aug. 14 press conference at New Braunfels ISD, he pointed to South San Antonio ISD's first year under state control, calling its turnaround “nothing short of remarkable.” He also said state interventions should be “exceptionally rare.”
Mary Lynn Pruneda, director of workforce and education policy for Texas 2036, told CommunityImpact that accountability systems aren't designed to fix a school, but are safeguards that trigger consequences when one doesn't fix itself.
“Today’s ratings are a critical signal to Texas parents on how well their student’s school is performing,” she said in an Aug. 14 release from the organization. “They tell us if students are able to read and do math, and whether or not they’re prepared for life after high school.”
Austin teachers and staff, meanwhile, should have a greater voice in district decisions, said Trasell Underwood, vice president of Education Austin, during an Aug. 13 press conference held by Keep Austin Schools Independent. The coalition launched Aug. 13 to oppose a potential takeover and has argued that an appointed board would lack accountability to Austin voters and parents.
Parents, educators and community members gathered outside Eastside Early College High School for the launch of coalition Keep Austin Schools Independent. (Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
Ken Zarifis, president of Education Austin, told Community Impact separately that the A-F system can obscure the broader picture of what is happening at a school, and that he expects a takeover to put even more emphasis on testing at the expense of students and teachers while stripping Austin families of local control.
“I think it’s a false way of saying what a person is,” he said. “A person is an A or a person is an F—I think that label really mischaracterizes what a kid represents.”
What parents can do
Check your campus: Current A-F grades and year-over-year history are at www.txschools.gov.
Spring STAAR results are available through the AISD family portal or at www.texasassessment.gov using a campus access code.
CommunityImpact will continue covering Austin ISD's accountability ratings as more information becomes available.
