Tioga ISD is celebrating an “A” academic accountability rating from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), marking an improvement over the district’s score from a year ago.
The recognition provides what Superintendent Josh Ballinger called “validation of the work being done by students and staff.”
The district received an overall score of 92 in the state’s recently released accountability ratings, up from an 87 the previous year.
Tioga was one of three Grayson County districts, along with Bells and Pottsboro, to earn an A.
“It’s our students and staff that get these scores,” Ballinger said. “They’ve remained focused.”
The rating is largely based on student achievement, including STAAR and end-of-course testing, as well as college, career and military readiness measures.
Ballinger said Tioga has traditionally performed well in those areas.
The state accountability system also considers school progress and efforts to close achievement gaps among different student populations.
Tioga scored a 91 in student achievement and a 93 in closing the gaps.
Under the state formula, according to Ballinger, student achievement accounts for 70% of the calculation.
The better score from the other applicable domains is used for the remaining portion. Those scores combined to give Tioga its overall 92.
Ballinger said the closing-the-gaps score is particularly encouraging because it measures whether success is being shared among different groups of students.
“Our Hispanic population scores very well, economically disadvantaged scores very well,” he said. “Those gaps that the state’s wanting to see — to make sure you’re not just teaching to the upper and banking that for your scores.”
The academic success comes after several challenging years for the district financially.
Tioga’s previous accreditation issues were tied to financial accountability rather than academics, Ballinger said. The district has continued to perform academically despite those challenges.
According to Ballinger, the district has worked for four years to improve its financial position while maintaining its academic performance.
He cited guidance from TEA’s Mike Morath last spring that Tioga should continue what it was doing academically — and improve if possible — while continuing to address its finances.
“Obviously we did,” Ballinger said of the academic improvement.
The district also recently received a passing FIRST financial accountability rating for the first time in five years, Ballinger said.
Tioga’s financial score remains capped because the district is still repaying money owed to the state following an approximately $2 million overpayment during the 2022-23 school year.
Ballinger said the academic results are especially meaningful considering Tioga operates with fewer employees than many similarly sized districts.
“We operate with about 20% less staff than other schools our size,” he said. “That just means we’re asking more of our teachers, more of our staff, more of our administration.”
He credited employees who have remained with the district and continued to focus on students despite the additional workload and the financial challenges surrounding the district.
“We’re very grateful for them to stick around,” Ballinger said. “We have fantastic kids, and if you want to come work with them and experience some success and be proud of them when they do perform well, we have a lot of good things going.”
For Ballinger, the A rating offers tangible evidence of that success, and of a district that has continued to move forward academically while working through challenges elsewhere.
The district begins the new school year with enrollment expected to be around 600 students.
Ballinger said enrollment could be slightly lower after Tioga graduated an unusually large senior class of roughly 80 students that was not replaced by an equally large incoming kindergarten class.
Across the board, most schools/districts in the area saw an improvement over last year’s ratings.
Whitesboro recently received a C with an overall score of 78, up four points from last year.
Collinsville received a B with an overall score of 83, up one point from last year.
S&S CISD saw a four-point drop from last year, with a current rating of C with an overall score of 74.
Bells and Pottsboro both earned As this year, with an overall score of 91 and 90 respectively.
Whitewright earned a B with an overall score of 88, up seven points from last year.
Tom Bean earned a B with an overall score of 80.
Van Alstyne also earned a B, with an overall score of 87. This is a two-point drop from last year.
