At its Aug. 14 meeting, Alamo Heights ISD administrators told the board a temporary restraining order halted the Texas Education Agencys planned release of A–F school and district accountability ratings and reviewed the districts own STAR, writing and Advanced Placement (AP) results.

Dr. Jimmy Walker, the presenter for the student-learning segment, summarized the court action and explained why the district is relying on multiple measures. "This is just a temporary restraining order," Walker said, adding the order was granted pending a hearing August 26 and that the legal challenge centers on an "ultra vires" claim that the state and vendor did not perform an independent validation required by statute or rule.

The board heard STAR (state readiness) data comparing Alamo Heights to statewide results and trends back to 2019. Walker said Alamo Heights remains above state averages in most areas but noted subject- and grade-specific declines, particularly in some math grades and fifth-grade science. "When we look at math, we're seeing some areas where we're not seeing the growth that we would like or would expect," Walker said.

Writing scores were a focal point of the presentation and of the pending litigation. Walker explained that the states new prompt types and machine-scoring methods have increased the number of responses scored as zero (unscorable) in some high schools nationally. "We saw some high schools that had almost 65% of their scores as a 0 ranking," he said, and added Alamo Heights saw an increase in zeros but not to that extreme.

Walker described how scoring changed: prompts shifted from personal narrative to explanatory tasks tied to passages, and a student who summarizes rather than answers the prompt can receive a zero. He said STAR parent-facing tools remain useful: "One thing I do think is really robust is their parent portal. A parent can go in and see every single question, how their child answered, what was the right answer, they can read what they wrote."

District next steps include notifying families by Oct. 1 if a student did not meet STAR expectations and offering supplemental tutoring called "accelerated instruction." Walker said the Oct. 1 date allows the district to include beginning-of-year diagnostic data so families can weigh an opt-out decision against multiple measures. "Parents always have the option to opt out," he said.

Facing concerns about the predictive alignment of local interim measures, the district will pilot an additional interim assessment for math. Walker said the district plans to use the TEA interim STAR in math as an additional check, "not to replace STAR, but to give us more information" in grades where alignment was weak.

The board also reviewed AP exam participation and scores. Walker said the number of students taking AP exams grew over several years, dipped slightly this year in the number who actually sat for tests, and that the district is expanding AP preparation and coordination with growing dual-credit offerings. "We need to expand our AP test prep so that students are feeling prepared and ready," he said.

Trustees asked about follow-up reporting and deep dives into items missed on STAR. Walker said teams will analyze test items question-by-question in PLCs and bring a summary back to the board later in the fall.

Why it matters: the temporary restraining order pauses the states public accountability ratings, but local instruction and remediation decisions continue. The district emphasized multiple data sources, parent notification, and targeted interventions while legal and technical issues about scoring remain unresolved.

Ending: District staff said they will return to the board with more detailed item-level analysis and an update on interim assessment pilots this fall.