Dallas County Schools Show Continued Progress in 2026 Accountability Ratings
Results provide an updated look at student outcomes across Dallas County, with more campuses earning A or B ratings and fewer receiving D or F ratings
DALLAS, Aug. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Education Agency (https://tea.texas.gov/) today released its 2026 A–F Accountability Ratings, providing families, district leaders, and communities across Texas with an annual look at student outcomes across Texas public schools.
Accountability ratings provide a comparable measure of school performance, helping families and education leaders understand where students are experiencing strong academic outcomes and where additional attention and support may be needed.
Dallas County Results
This year's results show modest improvement across Dallas County. In 2026, 60% of campuses received an A or B rating, 26% received a C, and 14% received a D or F.
Compared with 2025, the share of Dallas County campuses earning an A or B increased from 58% to 60%, while the share receiving a D or F declined from 16% to 14%. The share of campuses receiving a C remained relatively stable at 26%. Overall, Dallas County outpaced the state, with stronger growth in A- or B-rated campuses and a greater decline in D- or F-rated campuses.
This year's results provide encouraging momentum for Dallas County, while also pointing to an important opportunity to build on that progress. While relatively few campuses are receiving the state's lowest ratings, there remains significant room to help more schools move toward stronger student outcomes that ultimately ladder up into postsecondary success.
2026 Statewide Results
Dallas County's results largely mirrored trends across the state. Across Texas, 61% of campuses received an A or B rating, 24% received a C, and 15% received a D or F, compared with 60%, 26%, and 14% in Dallas County, respectively.
Statewide results remained relatively stable compared with 2025, with a slight shift toward higher ratings. The share of Texas campuses earning an A or B increased from 60% to 61%, while C-rated campuses declined from 25% to 24% and D- or F-rated campuses remained at 15%.
"Seeing more Dallas County campuses earn higher ratings is encouraging, especially as the county saw stronger improvement than the state overall. These ratings reflect stronger outcomes for students, and the opportunity now is to build on those results and ensure that more schools and students experience that same success," said Miguel Solis, president of The Commit Partnership (www.commitpartnership.org). "Helping more schools achieve stronger student outcomes will require continued focus on what we know matters most for students: high-quality instruction and materials, expanding instructional time, and ensuring schools can attract, develop, and retain effective teachers. By pairing those investments with actionable data that helps educators understand and respond to student needs, we can prepare more students for success in college, career, and beyond."
What Is the A–F Accountability System?
Texas' accountability system assigns every eligible public school district and campus an overall grade from A through F based on student outcomes.
Ratings are based on three components that consider overall student achievement, academic progress year-over-year, and outcomes across different student groups. Importantly, the system considers the better of student achievement or academic progress, allowing schools to receive credit when students demonstrate strong growth regardless of where they begin academically. For high schools, ratings also incorporate graduation rates and measures of college, career, and military readiness (CCMR).
The system provides families with a transparent and comparable way to understand school performance while helping education leaders identify which campuses are demonstrating strong instruction, areas for improvement, and schools where additional support may be needed.
Economically Disadvantaged Students Remain Less Likely to Attend Higher-Rated Schools
The 2026 ratings also provide an important look at whether students across Dallas County have equitable access to high-performing schools.
Economically disadvantaged students remain more than twice as likely to attend a D- or F-rated campus than students who are not economically disadvantaged.
In 2026:
- 14% of economically disadvantaged students attend a D- or F-rated campus. That compares with 6% of students who are not economically disadvantaged.
- 57% of economically disadvantaged students attend an A- or B-rated campus, compared with 77% of their peers.
This persistent gap highlights the need to ensure that every student attends a school with the staffing, resources, and support necessary to deliver strong academic outcomes, regardless of their economic circumstances.
Middle Schools Make Significant Gains in 2026
Accountability ratings also reveal differences in outcomes across school types. In Dallas County, 60% of middle schools received an A or B rating in 2026, compared with 52% of elementary schools and 90% of high schools. At the same time, 14% of middle schools received a D or F, compared with 19% of elementary schools and no high schools.
Middle schools demonstrated notable growth in 2026. The share of Dallas County middle schools receiving an A or B increased 14 points year over year, while the share receiving a D or F declined 7 points.
Building on this progress will be important as students navigate the middle grades and develop the academic foundation needed to successfully transition into high school and remain on track for postsecondary success. Improving middle school outcomes is also among the Texas House Public Education Committee's interim charges, signaling an area of focus for lawmakers as they study potential policy solutions ahead of the 90th Legislative Session. Furthermore, strengthening student proficiency in math and reading is among the key charges of the Texas Classroom Commission, which held its inaugural meeting this month with Governor Abbott, demonstrating a sustained commitment to improving student outcomes ahead of the 90th legislative session.
Sustained Campus Turnarounds Show What Is Possible
While accountability ratings provide an annual snapshot of school performance, looking across multiple years can help identify campuses demonstrating sustained improvement.
Across Dallas County, 40 campuses that received a D or F rating in 2023 improved to an A or B by 2026, improving or maintaining their rating each year along the way. Thirteen of these campuses are elementary schools, 7 are middle schools, 17 are high schools, and 3 span multiple school levels.
These sustained turnarounds demonstrate that significant improvements in student outcomes can be achieved and maintained over time. Understanding what contributed to their success can help identify practices and investments that could support improvement at other campuses across Dallas County and the state.
Looking Ahead: Texas' 2028 Accountability Refresh
Texas periodically refreshes its A–F accountability system to ensure it continues to reflect the state's expectations for student success. The next refresh will take effect with the 2028 accountability ratings and incorporate feedback from families, school leaders, and policymakers.
One area of continued evolution is how the system measures college, career and military readiness (CCMR). The 2026 reports show 87% of Texas graduates met the state's CCMR standard for accountability, meanwhile the latest THECB HS Graduates to Higher Ed Outcomes report on postsecondary completion show only 26% of graduates ultimately earn a credential. This highlights a gap between how the current system measures readiness and students' longer-term postsecondary outcomes.
As part of the refreshed system, Texas will begin differentiating among CCMR indicators based on how strongly they are associated with postsecondary success. The Class of 2030, or students entering ninth grade this school year, will be the first class evaluated under the new CCMR framework. The updated weighting will be reflected in accountability ratings beginning in 2031.
The changes provide an opportunity to better align how Texas defines and rewards college and career readiness with the outcomes students experience after high school, while also giving school systems time to adjust how they prepare students for postsecondary education and the workforce.
"Accountability is most useful when it helps us turn information into action," said Bridget Worley, Chief State Impact Officer at the Commit Partnership. "Families deserve clear information about how their schools are serving students, and education leaders need reliable data to understand where students are succeeding and where additional support is needed. As Texas prepares for changes to how college, career, and military readiness is measured, we're grateful that districts have been given time to evaluate their outcomes and adjust how they prepare students, and we're already seeing districts across Dallas County and Texas begin that work."
Explore the 2026 Accountability Data
The Commit Partnership will continue analyzing the 2026 Accountability Ratings in the coming weeks, including statewide and regional trends, Dallas County performance, student-group outcomes, and campuses demonstrating significant improvement.
Explore Commit's initial analysis and interactive accountability resources:
About The Commit Partnership
The Commit Partnership (www.commitpartnership.org) aims to break the cycle of poverty in Dallas County by examining its numerous root causes and working with others to remove systemic barriers to opportunity for all students. Commit Partnership discovers robust data insights and activates them through trusted relationships to innovate systems and unlock public funding in ways that address the root causes creating current student outcomes. Commit Partnership's true north goal is that, by 2040, at least half of all 25–34-year-old residents in Dallas County, irrespective of race, will earn a living wage.
Media Contact
John Walls
Director, Communications & Engagement
The Commit Partnership
[email protected]
SOURCE The Commit Partnership
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