Houston ISD and civic leaders celebrated Wednesday after learning that four of the district’s longest-struggling campuses met state academic standards this year, staving off potentially major sanctions that have loomed for months over Texas’ largest public school district.

According to preliminary academic accountability results released by the Texas Education Agency, the four HISD campuses — Mading and Wesley elementary schools, Woodson PK-8 and Worthing High School — all showed enough student growth and sufficiently smaller performance gaps to receive a “met standard” rating in 2018. If any of those four had failed to meet standard this year, the Texas Education Agency would have been required under a new state law to close campuses or replace HISD’s locally elected school board.

“We know that we have work to do to build some more trust and support from our communities, but the numbers show HISD is shifting course and turning schools around,” HISD interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan told a jubilant crowd Wednesday morning at Worthing High School. “There’s a lot of good news happening in HISD. My hope is that the greater community sees that we’re heading in the right direction and will work with us to get there.”

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Following the new state legislation, the Texas Education Agency released academic accountability ratings Wednesday for the 2018 school year, debuting a new system aimed at better rewarding student progress and performance relative to poverty.

For each district and school, 70 percent of the rating is based on the highest scaled score among three categories – student achievement, student progress or relative performance – and 30 percent is based on success in closing performance gaps.

Districts are rated on an A-through-F letter grade system this year, while schools are still rated “met standard” or “improvement required” before transitioning to an A-through-F system next year.

Please note that the letter grade in the "Campus ratings" table was assigned to schools by the Houston Chronicle, not by the TEA. This is an unofficial letter grade based on the overall grade.

Scroll to the left or right to view the entire table.

Campus ratings

District ratings

Note: If a district or school scores 59 or lower on three of the four domains, it automatically receives an “F” or “improvement required” rating. If a district has any schools rated “improvement required,” it cannot receive an “A” grade.

Student achievement – Raw performance on standardized tests for all schools, as well as graduation rates and college and career readiness measures for high schools.

Student progress – Year-over-year improvement shown by students, regardless of raw scores.

Relative performance – Student achievement levels compared to schools with similar percentages of economically disadvantaged students.

Closing the gaps – Achievement and growth performance across various demographic groups.

Note: If a district or school scores 59 or lower on three of the four domains, it automatically receives an “F” or “improvement required” rating. If a district has any schools rated “improvement required,” it cannot receive an “A” grade.

Source: Texas Education Agency data | Created by Jordan Rubio/Houston Chronicle

HISD also showed relatively strong results districtwide under the state’s new accountability system, which assigned districts an A-through-F letter grade for the first time while continuing to label campuses as “met standard” or “improvement required.” Academic accountability ratings are based largely on performance and growth on standardized tests in all schools, plus college and career readiness and graduation rates in high schools.

As a district, HISD officially was labeled “not rated” under a waiver related to Hurricane Harvey’s devastation, but it would have received a “B” grade without the exemption.

At the campus level, seven schools were rated “improvement required,” 15 would have been labeled “improvement required” but received “not rated” scores due to Harvey, and 251 schools met standard. HISD had 27 “improvement required” schools last year.

Although HISD will avoid sanctions this year, the threat of state-imposed punishment likely will loom throughout the 2018-19 school year. Another set of four low-performing HISD schools could trigger the same sanctions next year if they fail to meet academic standards when results are released in August 2019. Those campuses are Highland Heights Elementary School, Henry Middle School and Kashmere and Wheatley high schools. District leaders are contemplating whether to surrender control over those campuses to outside organizations in exchange for a two-year sanctions reprieve.

For Wednesday, at least, HISD and community leaders focused on the prior year’s accomplishments, shedding several months of anguish tied to the superintendent’s unexpected departure and discord over how to manage the sanctions threat.

In a gathering permeated with joy, relief and tears, about 200 people gathered at historic Worthing High School on the city’s south side to herald the accountability results. Lathan, who was elevated from chief academic officer to interim superintendent in March, heaped praise on district staff for producing HISD's smallest crop of “improvement required” schools since 2012. School board president Rhonda Skillern-Jones declared the district “an A-plus” for its perseverance through Harvey.

“We can have detractors, we can have naysayers, but what matters is the data and the children,” Skillern-Jones said. “The children did this. The staff did this.”

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Worthing’s first-year principal, Khalilah Campbell-Rhone, rejoiced over shaking the threat of campus closure, which she said had weighed on the school community.

“Everybody was under the impression that we would be closed down, that there may be no more Worthing, and that’s what we were fighting against,” Campbell-Rhone said. “To win, the feeling is indescribable.”

Lathan credited the district’s school turnaround plan, known as Achieve 180, for producing strong academic gains at lower-performing schools. HISD dedicated an additional $15 million this year to roughly 40 campuses, which funded staff salary incentives, professional development services and resources dedicated to students’ social welfare, among other costs. Many Achieve 180 schools showed strong gains on the state’s standardized academic tests, often improving at rates exceeding district and state averages.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, who is closely watching HISD’s performance given the potential for state sanctions, lauded the district’s results Wednesday while cautioning that some schools still must show improvement. He singled out Kashmere High School, which would have received its ninth consecutive “improvement required” rating if not for an accountability waiver tied to Harvey.

“Houston ISD has made progress, like many school systems across the state. That's clear and that's very good news,” Morath said. “But there's obviously still a number of schools that need greater support throughout Houston, and I know they're working diligently on that.”

With the threat of sanctions lifted for at least one year, HISD leaders will move forward with tackling several looming challenges. Chief among them: who should lead the district after former Superintendent Richard Carranza abruptly left to become chancellor of New York City public schools in March.

HISD trustees opted to delay any nationwide superintendent search until after the release of accountability results, given the possibility of the TEA replacing the school board. Trustee Wanda Adams on Wednesday called for removing Lathan’s interim tag, with Skillern-Jones saying “it’s a worthy conversation to have.”

Other board members, however, have been reluctant to move so swiftly. Trustee Sergio Lira said Wednesday that the accountability results “definitely have a strong impact” on a potential vote to retain Lathan, but he did not call to keep her in the role permanently.

In the coming weeks, trustees and administrators also will begin navigating whether to surrender control over campuses at risk of triggering sanctions in 2019 to stave off potential punishment. Lathan said district leaders are considering a request for proposals, in which potential partners would submit plans for operating campuses. Only nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions, charter school networks and government entities can become partners.

Lathan’s administration in April recommended giving control over 10 schools to a Houston-based charter school operator, Energized For STEM Academy Inc., but the proposal died amid community backlash and criticism over the charter network’s academic and governance history. Vocal community members argued the district should not hand over campuses to private groups, while supporters said they did not want to risk state sanctions.

TEA officials have suggested partnership plans for the 2019-20 school year will need to be finalized by November, with contracts between districts and outside organizations completed in early 2019. The agency, however, has not finalized deadlines. Lathan said she hopes the TEA will extend deadlines into spring 2019, giving HISD more time to find and vet potential partners.

“It gives us a chance to truly go through a formalized process so we can cast that net as wide as we can to see who’s willing to work with us,” Lathan said.