Lampasas Independent School District scored a “B” for its 2024 and 2025 A-F state accountability ratings. The Texas Education Agency released the ratings to the public on Friday.
After receiving a “B” in 2023, Lampasas Assistant Superintendent Dana Holcomb said the new results show the district is on a consistent trajectory under the much more rigorous STAAR 2.0 that launched in 2023.
“From teachers doing an excellent job day in and day out, to our instructional specialists supporting them, principals overseeing things at the campus – accolades go out to everybody,” Holcomb said. “We are definitely pleased, but we obviously want to continue to strive to improve and will do that.”
A-F accountability ratings are decided by three categories: student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps.
Student achievement focuses on how students perform on standardized tests and whether they are considered college/career ready, which only counts for high school ratings.
“Other than the high school, 100% of the accountability for elementary and middle school comes from the STAAR test,” Holcomb said. “On one given day, we have to hope they are feeling good and feel up to it and give a good effort.”
School progress rates how much students have improved on tests, while closing the gaps grades how well schools are improving scores for special education students or English language learners.
The A-F rating is calculated by the better score of student achievement and school progress, accounting for 70% of the overall score. The remaining 30% comes from the closing gaps domain.
Along with A-F ratings, districts and campuses also may receive “Distinction Designations.”
“They take each of our campuses, and they compare them,” Holcomb said. “There’s a little system they go through to put us in a group of 40 other campuses that they say are similar to our schools. The top 25% of those 40 schools earns a distinction. It is kind of like the icing on the cake, the gold star, so to speak.”
In 2024, LISD earned a “B” rating for the district, scoring an 83. That number slightly increased to an 84 in 2025, composed of an 84 score in both student achievement and closing the gaps. The last time the district received an “A” rating overall was in 2022.
“We have been very consistent in a good way,” Holcomb said. “We are going to keep pushing hard to try to get back to that ‘A.’ Overall, very excited about the job everyone has done.”
CAMPUS RATINGS
Lampasas High School received a “B” rating (87) with an 89% score in student achievement and an 82% in closing the gaps for 2024. In 2025, LHS inched closer to the “A” rating, with a 91 in student achievement and an 85 in closing the gaps, to create a final score of 89.
LHS received a Distinction Designation for postsecondary readiness both years.
Lampasas Middle School secured a “B” rating (81) in 2024, with an 83 in student achievement and 77 in closing the gaps. LMS improved to an 84 overall rating in 2025, when it earned an 81 for student achievement and a 90% score in closing the gaps.
The campus earned a Distinction Designation for academic achievement in reading/language arts in 2024 and in 2025, which also included distinctions for social studies and closing the gaps.
Of LISD’s five campuses, Hanna Springs Elementary School received the lowest accountability score in 2023 with a “C” rating (71). The campus dramatically improved with an 85 overall score in 2024, composed of an 83 in school progress and 88 in closing the gaps.
The Hanna Springs campus earned another “B” rating (82) for 2025, including an 83 in school progress and a 78 for closing the gaps.
Hanna Springs Elementary earned distinctions in 2024 for academic growth, achievement in mathematics and closing the gaps. Academic growth was the sole distinction the campus received in 2025.
“In our district, it is the biggest campus and serves a very diverse population,” Holcomb said regarding Hanna Springs. “A lot of credit to their staff in staying focused and doing a very good job as well.”
Kline Whitis Elementary received a “B” rating (81) in 2024, based on an 82 in student achievement and 77 in closing the gaps. The campus showed improvement in 2025, with a mid-B rating (84) composed of an 85% score in student achievement and an 83% in closing the gaps.
After earning no distinctions in 2024, the Kline Whitis campus earned three in 2025 for academic achievement in reading/language arts and in mathematics, plus postsecondary readiness.
Taylor Creek Elementary has come a long way from the “D” rating it received in 2019. After earning an “A” in 2022, the school fell to a 79 or “C” rating in 2023. Taylor Creek earned a high “B” in 2024 with an 88, composed of scores of 83 in student achievement and 90 in closing the gaps. However, the campus’ rating dipped again in 2025 to a 79, based on an 80% score in student progress and a 75 in closing the gaps.
Taylor Creek Elementary secured distinctions in comparative academic growth, postsecondary readiness and closing the gaps in 2024. Academic achievement in reading/language arts was the only distinction it earned in 2025.
STAAR MAKEOVER?
Texas lawmakers are proposing changes to the STAAR exam with three shorter tests administered throughout the school year. Senate Bill 8 passed the Texas Senate on Aug, 14 and will move forward to the House now.
“I see some positives,” Holcomb said of the proposed law. “You are not putting it all on a kid and stressing them out on one day. It would be multiple tests and maybe taking a percentage to see how they are doing. I see where proponents of [the change in state assessments] would say it is a more accurate gauge of student improvement and performance.”
Throughout the school year, Holcomb said each campus conducts common assessments to scale student progress for the STAAR exams. Students take a benchmark exam around six weeks before STAAR tests are administered to reveal areas in need of improvement before test day.
If SB 8 were to become law, Holcomb noted it is likely the school district would scale back on student testing.
“If it moved to multiple STAAR tests, we would obviously back off on some of that because we would not want to over-test students,” he said. “I can see some benefit of it in that regard.”
The bill also would restore annual A-F ratings for Texas school districts, after legal fights resulted in delays in the release of scores for 2023 and 2024. Time will tell whether those changes become reality.