San Marcos — Almost 1,200 Texas school districts and charter schools earned full accreditation status from the Texas Education Agency Wednesday.

Texas Preparatory School (TPS) in San Marcos, however, was not one of them.

TPS, two other charter schools and a school district were notified by the TEA their accreditation will be revoked and that they will no longer be able to operate as public schools after this school year.

Also getting the bad news were the Kendleton Independent School District, Jean Massieu Academy in Arlington and Alphonso Crutch’s Life Support Center in Houston.

The accreditation system examines both the financial and academic health of districts and charter schools.

It also examines performance in other areas such as data reporting, special program effectiveness and compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.

Texas Preparatory School was notified that its state accreditation will be revoked because of substandard academic and/or financial ratings, and is expected to close effective July 1.

A district or charter with accreditation status of Not Accredited: Revoked may challenge this decision, TEA said.

Texas Preparatory School was chartered by the state in 2001.

It’s current Web site says TPS has approximately 100 students in grades K-6.

The school is open to residents of Caldwell, Comal, Hays and Guadalupe counties. The school is located at 400 Uhland Road.

Of the four state charters revoked this week, TEA said this is the first time a district or charter has lost its status as a public school under the accreditation system implemented in 2006 under new legislative requirements.

“This is an extremely serious step and it is not one that this agency takes lightly.  Each of  these districts or charters has exhibited years of extremely poor academic performance and/or ongoing financial problems. Children and taxpayers deserve better,” Commissioner of Education Robert Scott said.

This is the third year that an accreditation status has been issued for school districts and the second year a status has been assigned to charter schools. Scott said 1,198 out of 1,232 districts and charters earned an Accredited status from TEA.

“An overwhelming majority of our Texas school districts and charters are providing strong academic instruction to students and are appropriately handling public funds,” Scott said.

Under the accreditation system, ratings of Accredited, Accredited-Warned, Accredited-Probation or Not Accredited-Revoked are issued.  The status of a district or charter can be listed as pending if an investigation is under way.  

Most of Texas districts and charters achieved full accreditation status. That is because they earned a rating of Academically Acceptable or higher in the state’s academic accountability system and a Superior Achievement or Above Standard Achievement in the state’s financial accountability system, which is called School Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas for traditional districts.

 Twenty Texas districts or charters received a status below the Accredited level, including four that have been notified that they are losing their state accreditation.  The accreditation status of 14 entities was left pending because of ongoing investigative activities. Alfonso Crutch is not currently operating.

Additionally, 11 school districts or charter schools earned an Accredited – Warned status, which is one step below full accreditation, because they either:

• Were rated Academically Unacceptable in 2008 and 2009;

• Received a Substandard Achievement or Suspended – Data Quality rating in the financial accountability system in 2008 and 2009; or

• Had one year of poor ratings in both the state academic accountability system and the financial accountability system.