A Travis County judge ruled today that Texas public schools are required to give students truthful grades on class assignments and on their report cards under a 2009 state law that 11 school districts were challenging in court.
The school districts — most of them in Harris County – argued that the law applied only to grades on assignments, noting that the statute didn’t specifically mention report cards, semester grades, or six- or nine-week averages.
But state District Judge Gisela Triana-Doyal ruled that the statute is “not ambiguous” and clearly means districts cannot require teachers to give students grades they did not earn. The bill’s author, Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, has said she intended it to apply to all grades.