Texas Assocation of Business Calls for Investigation into State School Districts

After an internal audit of the Dallas Independent School District showed many graduates may have not met diploma requirements, the Texas Association of Business is calling for an investigation of the state’s 100 largest school districts.

“For many years the Texas Association of Business has questioned the dropout numbers reported by school districts across the state,” said Bill Hammond, Texas Association of Business CEO. “Up until now, the question has always been about why students were leaving school and if those students were correctly counted. Now, based on the Dallas Independent School District audit it appears very high numbers of students who graduated may not have been in compliance with state law and should not have received a diploma.”

In August the Texas Education Agency released accountability ratings for more than 1,200 school districts across the state and found that 90 percent met their standard. The report looks at the areas of student achievement, student progress, postsecondary readiness and closing performance gaps.

Groups like the Texas Association of Business and the Dallas ISD however, are not seeing proof of this and hope that an investigation will elucidate the underlying problem.