Austin ISD outlines accelerated turnaround plan, submits Dobie Middle School plan to TEA by June 30

Austin Independent School District officials told the board of trustees Thursday that Dobie Middle School has been required by the Texas Education Agency to prepare a campus turnaround plan and that the district will submit a plan by June 30, 2025.

The turnaround requirement stems from federal accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which identified Dobie as among the bottom 5% of middle schools statewide on the “closing the gaps” metric, officials said. “When we got the notice of that turnaround plan ... we felt that that sanction did not apply to Dobie,” Carolyn Hanschen, executive director of campuses and district accountability, said, describing the district’s initial disagreement with TEA’s timeline. Hanschen said the agency later said it would align federal labels with state accountability and required the turnaround plan.

The district said the TEA recently extended the submission window for federally prompted turnaround plans to align with state deadlines: districts were told they no longer needed to submit by April 30 and have until June 30 to submit plans based on state accountability. Jacob Reach, chief of governmental relations and…