The origins of the AEIS go back to 1984, when the Texas Legislature for the first time sought to emphasize student achievement as the basis for accountability. That year, House Bill 72 called for a system of accountability based primarily on student performance. Prior to that, accountability focused mostly on process, that is, districts were checked to see if their schools had been following rules, regulations, and sound educational practices. The level of detail on the AEIS is possible thanks to the extensive amount of school data collected in Texas. Other state agencies provide information such as tax rates and property values.
School districts submit their data via standardized computer files.
A software system of standard edits, to enhance the quality of data, is used by ESCs and again by the agency on district data submissions. Since the first AEIS reports for the 1990-91 school year, other reports have been developed that use the AEIS data. The Accountability Rating System for Texas Public Schools and School Districts uses a subset of the performance measures computed for AEIS to assign a rating to each public school and district. Schools and districts have been rated since 1994 using this system. These show a subset of the performance, staff, and financial measures in the AEIS reports.