Dallas County Schools Show Continued Progress in 2026 Accountability Ratings

Each year, Texas' A–F Accountability Ratings give families, systems leaders, and communities a comparable look at student outcomes across campuses and districts, helping show where students are succeeding and where additional support may be needed.

The 2026 results show positive movement across Dallas County and Texas. In Dallas County:

• 60% of campuses received an A or B
• 26% received a C
• 14% received a D or F

The share of campuses earning an A or B increased from 58% in 2025 to 60% in 2026, while the share receiving a D or F declined from 16% to 14%. The share receiving a C remained relatively stable at 26%. Dallas County outpaced the state in both the growth of A- and B-rated campuses and the decline of D- and F-rated campuses.

The movement towards higher ratings is encouraging and points to an important opportunity for Dallas County 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 contribute to postsecondary success.

Statewide results remained relatively stable compared with 2025, with a slight shift toward higher ratings. In 2026, 61% of Texas campuses earned an A or B, 24% earned a C, and 15% received a D or F. Compared with 2025, the share 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%.

The results highlight both the progress Dallas County schools have made and the work still ahead to ensure every student attends a school preparing them for success. Building on that progress will require continued investment in high-quality instruction and materials, additional time receiving rigorous instruction, and attracting, developing, and retaining effective teachers- paired with actionable data that helps educators understand and respond to student needs.

Accountability Measures Overall Performance, Annual Growth, and Achievement Across Student Groups

It is important to understand what Texas’s accountability rating actually measures.

Texas' A–F accountability system evaluates schools and districts across three components that consider student achievement, year-over-year academic progress, and outcomes across different student groups.

Importantly, the system considers the better of student achievement or academic progress, meaning schools can receive credit when students demonstrate strong growth regardless of where they begin academically.

All three components of the accountability system draw from outcomes on statewide assessments. For high schools, the system also incorporates graduation rates and measures of college, career, and military readiness.

That makes accountability a useful tool not just for understanding school performance, but also for identifying which schools are helping students make meaningful academic progress and which need additional support and resources.

‍Economic Opportunity Gaps Remain

The ratings also help us understand whether students across Dallas County have equitable access to high-performing schools.

Among students classified by the state as economically disadvantaged, 14% attend a D- or F-rated campus, compared with 6% of students who are not economically disadvantaged.

In contrast, 57% of economically disadvantaged students attend an A- or B-rated campus, compared with 77% of their non-economically disadvantaged peers.

These gaps reinforce an important principle: a student's economic circumstances should not determine the quality of school they can access.

Further, every campus needs the staffing, instructional resources, and support necessary to deliver strong student outcomes.

‍Middle School Ratings Improve Across Dallas County‍

A closer look at the 2026 ratings shows how middle schools compare with elementary and high schools across the county. In Dallas County, 60% of middle schools received an A or B, 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 none of Dallas County’s high schools.

The year-over-year results are particularly encouraging for middle schools. The share of Dallas County middle schools receiving an A or B increased 14 percentage points from 2025, while the share receiving a D or F declined 7 percentage points.

These gains create an important opportunity to build on the progress Dallas County middle schools made this year. The middle grades are a critical period when students build the academic foundation needed to transition successfully into high school and remain on track for postsecondary success. Sustaining this improvement will be critical to ensuring more students enter high school prepared for what comes next.

Improving middle school outcomes is also among the Texas House Public Education Committee's interim charges as lawmakers focus on 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

A single year's rating provides an important snapshot. Looking across multiple years tells which campuses are making meaningful, sustained progress.

Across Dallas County, 40 campuses that received a D or F in 2023 improved to an A or B by 2026, improving or maintaining their rating every year along the way.

Those campuses include:

• 13 elementary schools
• 7 middle schools
• 17 high schools
• 3 schools that span multiple school levels

These turnarounds show that campuses can achieve stronger student outcomes and build on their progress year after year.

Understanding what successful campuses are doing, and which investments and practices contributed to their improvement, can help education leaders identify strategies that could support students at other campuses across Dallas County and Texas.

‍Looking Ahead: Texas' 2028 Accountability Refresh‍

Texas periodically refreshes its 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.

One important area of change is college, career, and military readiness.

Currently, 87% of Texas graduates meet the state's CCMR accountability standard, while 26% ultimately earned a postsecondary credential in the most recent reports.

That gap raises an important question: Are all of the measures currently considered "college and career ready" equally predictive of success after high school?

Under the new framework, Texas will begin differentiating among CCMR indicators based on how strongly they are associated with postsecondary success.

Students entering ninth grade this school year, the Class of 2030, will be the first class evaluated under the new CCMR framework, with the updated weighting reflected in accountability ratings beginning in 2031.

The extended implementation period gives school systems time to understand their outcomes and adjust how they prepare students for college, career, and the workforce.

Explore the Data

The Commit Partnership will continue analyzing the 2026 Accountability Ratings in the coming weeks.

Explore our initial analysis and interactive tools:

• Accountability Ratings Dashboard

Accountability ratings are not the end of the conversation. They give us information we can use to celebrate strong outcomes, understand persistent challenges, and continue improving opportunities for every student.

FAQs: Accountability Ratings

What are the Accountability Ratings?

The Texas Education Agency's A–F Accountability Ratings provide a comparable measure of public school district and campus performance across Texas. Ratings consider student achievement, year-over-year academic progress, and how well schools are serving different groups of students. High school ratings also incorporate graduation rates and college, career, and military readiness.

What do the 2026 results show?

The 2026 results show modest improvement across Dallas County, with an increase in the share of A- and B-rated campuses and a decline in the share receiving D or F ratings.

Overall, Dallas County outpaced the state, with stronger growth in A- and B-rated campuses and a greater decline in D- and 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.

What is the biggest takeaway?

This year’s results reinforce the value of using accountability data not just to track performance, but to understand where schools are succeeding and where opportunities remain. The focus now should be on learning from what’s working and extending those practices to more students and campuses.

Does a low rating simply reflect the poverty level of students served by a school?

No, Texas’ accountability system is intentionally designed so that every campus can earn an A rating. The system recognizes academic growth as well as overall student achievement, using the better of achievement or academic progress when calculating a significant portion of a campus’s rating. That allows schools to receive credit when students make strong year-over-year gains, regardless of where they begin academically. It also considers relative performance, which measures how a campus’ students perform compared to campuses serving similar levels of economically disadvantaged students. Schools serving students from low-income backgrounds may face additional challenges and require greater resources and support, but a low accountability rating cannot be explained solely by the income level of students served.

Why does The Commit Partnership analyze Accountability Ratings?

Commit analyzes the data to understand where students are experiencing strong outcomes, identify persistent challenges, recognize campuses demonstrating sustained improvement, and help education leaders determine where additional attention and resources may be needed.

Does a letter grade tell the entire story of a school?

No. A letter grade can't capture everything that happens within a school community. What it does provide is a clear measure of student outcomes. It shows what students are achieving academically, the progress they’re making year over year, and whether outcomes are improving across different student groups. That focus on outcomes is what makes ratings comparable across the state's roughly 9,000 campuses, regardless of size, location, or student population.

Why focus on middle schools?

Dallas County middle schools have historically been less likely than elementary and high schools to receive A or B ratings and more likely to receive D or F ratings. While middle schools showed strong improvement in 2026, sustaining and building on those gains will be important given the critical role the middle grades play in preparing students for high school and postsecondary success. Improving middle school outcomes is also among the Texas House Public Education Committee's interim charges ahead of the 90th Legislative Session.

What strategies can help improve student outcomes?

The accountability data itself does not prove that any one strategy caused a campus to improve. However, Commit continues to support data-informed approaches associated with stronger student outcomes, including high-quality instruction and instructional materials, expanded instructional time where appropriate, effective educator recruitment and retention, and the use of actionable performance data.

What should families take away from this year's release?

Families should view accountability ratings as a comparable, statewide look at school performance. The ratings provide an "apples-to-apples" overview of academic outcomes and growth across the state's roughly 9,000 campuses, giving families a consistent way to understand how a school is performing relative to others. School visits, conversations with educators, academic programs, extracurricular opportunities, and other factors can provide additional context on culture and fit. Without the ratings, families are left choosing schools with far less clarity about what those schools deliver academically.

What is changing in 2028?

Texas will implement the next refresh of its A–F accountability system beginning with the 2028 ratings. Among the changes underway is an updated approach to College, Career, and Military Readiness that will eventually differentiate among readiness indicators based on how strongly they are associated with postsecondary success.

What happens next?

Commit will continue analyzing statewide and Dallas County data, updating interactive dashboards, examining outcomes by student group and campus type, identifying sustained campus turnarounds, and sharing additional findings in the weeks ahead.