School Improvement

A Turnaround Plan, or TAP, is a comprehensive plan required by the state or federal government for a campus that has received multiple unacceptable accountability ratings or an Unacceptable (UA) count of two or more (See below for how TEA assigns UA counts). It outlines a set of intensive, long-term strategies designed to dramatically improve student performance and overall school quality. The plan must be approved by the district's Board of Trustees and submitted to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for approval.

For elementary and middle schools, state letter grades (A, B, C, D, F) are based primarily on the STAAR test. The current STAAR test system will be changed by HB 8 passed in the 89th Legislative session with a new system coming for the 2027-28 school year. For elementary schools, PK-2 and specials curriculum are not included in ratings. Therefore, a K-5 school is rated based on the STAAR performance of the 3rd-5th grade students.

• Any “F” rating
• 3 consecutive “D” ratings (including w/an “F” in between) 
• A “D” rating following 3 “D” ratings

A TIP is less intensive than a TAP. It is required after a school's first unacceptable rating (D or F) and is focused on targeted improvements. A Turnaround Plan (TAP) is required after a school has received multiple unacceptable ratings, and it involves a more comprehensive, intensive, and long-term set of changes.

If a campus receives two or more Unacceptable (UA) counts according to state accountability, or has been identified for “Comprehensive Support and Improvement” (CSI ) according to federal accountability, and/or has been reidentified more than once (meaning they have failed to exit this status two years in a row). For more information, visit the TEA website.

• Schools that developed a TAP in the 24-25 SY
• Schools that have 3 or more Unacceptable (UA) counts must develop and implement in the current school year
• Campuses that have been CSI reidentified more than twice (meaning they have failed to exit this status three years in a row)

• Mill Street Elementary
• DeLay Middle School
• Durham Middle School
   

District leaders have met with the principals and staff of schools required to develop TAPs to outline the plan development timeline and engagement process. The Campus Intervention Team, comprised of campus and district leaders, and instructional support teams has worked with campuses to gather input as we developed the draft plans. Draft plans were presented at the Oct. 6 Board Work Session. The district will gather input on the draft plan through a public input form, and public hearing at the Nov. 3 Board Work Session.

Final plans will be presented to the board at the Nov. 10 Board Meeting where they will vote on the Turnaround Plans.
 

• School Improvement model: Using the Effective Schools Framework
• Restart the School using an ACE Model: Restart the school in 2026-27 using a school management model called Accelerated Campus Excellence (ACE) or something similar. With this option, your school would stay open but the district would need to rehire staff and not all of the current staff would return here next year.
• Restart the School, partnering with a Charter company: Restart the school in 2026-27 by partnering with a charter school. This charter school would hire all the staff, including campus leadership, and current staff would have to apply to stay here or transfer to a new school.
• Closure or reassignment of students to a higher-performing campus: Students would be reassigned to another school or schools in the district with stronger academic ratings (a C or higher).

While a restart, like the one proposed for Mill Street, is a type of TAP, not all TAPs require such intensive intervention. Typically, when a campus is initially required to develop a turnaround plan, the school has a year to plan and two years to implement before stricter interventions are required. Due to the delays caused by the litigation related to accountability ratings, those timelines were condensed for Mill Street. 

Mill Street was facing four unacceptable accountability ratings which means that we must achieve acceptable ratings at these schools this year or TEA will intervene by either closing the schools or taking over the entire district.