Midland ISD Credit by Exam — Parent Guide: 80% Free vs 70% Paid, Apply 30 Days Ahead (2026-2027)

Midland ISD serves the city of Midland in the Permian Basin, and like every Texas district it is required to offer Credit by Examination. What makes MISD worth reading about before you call a counselor is that it runs two separate CBE tracks with different passing scores, different paperwork, and — this is the part families miss — different bills. One is free. One is not.

This is an independent guide. Texas CBE™ is not affiliated with Midland ISD or any Texas school district. Confirm specifics with your campus counselor.

Two tracks, and which one you are on

MISD splits Credit by Examination the way state law splits it, and publishes a separate page for each. Before anything else, work out which one applies to your student, because almost every other rule follows from it.

The exams themselves are bought in: MISD states it “uses the credit by examinations purchased from Texas Tech University”, and a parent may request an alternative examination from the University of Texas at Austin. On the paid track the district’s guidelines put the submission to Texas Tech on the student, not the campus — worth knowing, because it is the step most likely to be assumed away.

The number that catches families: it goes in the GPA

MISD is explicit, in capitals, on both of its CBE pages: “THE COURSE/GRADE WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE STUDENT’S GPA (GRADE POINT AVERAGE) AS STANDARD GRADE POINTS.” No weighted grades are given.

Read that against what acceleration is usually for. A student who tests out of a course to reach a higher track sooner is trading a weighted course they might have taken later for an unweighted grade now. That can be exactly the right trade — it is the whole point of accelerating — but it is a decision, and it should be made on purpose rather than discovered on a transcript.

One relief: if the student does not pass, nothing is recorded. MISD states that the examination score goes on the transcript when credit is earned and that “no grade will be recorded if the student does not accelerate.”

Apply at least 30 days ahead — and count the signatures

The district’s Application for Credit by Examination carries the one deadline a Midland family can act on today. The top of the form must be completed by the student and school personnel “at least 30 days before the test date”.

Thirty days is the floor, not the plan, because the form needs four signatures:

• Student
• Parent or guardian
• Principal or grade-level principal, as Attendance Review Committee Chair
• Counselor

Two of those are school staff whose calendars are not yours. A family that starts at day 30 is starting late. The form also records who paid — there is a line reading “Fee paid by: (student or campus name)” — which is the paperwork expression of the free-versus-paid split above.

A year-long course is two exams

Each half credit is its own examination, and each must be completed within three hours. The district’s own form gives the example: “Biology 1-A (first semester) and Biology 1-B (second semester) are two different tests.”

So a student going after Chemistry, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 or Biology in Midland is looking at two separate sittings, two applications’ worth of lead time, and — on the paid track — two fees. Budget and plan for the pair, not the course.

MISD is equally clear about what it does not provide: no textbooks, no review sheets, no tutoring, no TEKS curriculum materials. Preparation is the family’s to arrange.

The dates: not published for this school year

Here is what we could not find, and why we are saying so plainly rather than guessing.

The district’s guidelines state that “the tests are given on the dates noted on the MISD website.” The MISD website’s CBE pages carry testing windows from school years that have already ended, and nothing for the current one. As of our check on 9 August 2026, Midland ISD publishes no Credit by Examination dates for 2026–2027.

We are not reprinting the old windows here. A family plans around a date; an expired one is worse than none. Ask your campus counselor for the current calendar — the counselor is the designated CBE contact at every MISD campus, with the Director of Student Development as the contact at Central Office. If you get the dates, we would be glad to have them.

One more thing worth raising in that same conversation, below.

Three things to verify with your MISD counselor

1. Is the acceleration passing score 80 or 90? The district’s CBE/WOPI page says a grade of 80 percent or above. The application form — the one currently linked from that page — asks the student to tick “for accelerated placement (grade of 90 or better)”. State law sets 80 for credit by examination without prior instruction, and the form is dated 2011, so 80 is very probably the live figure. We are not going to state that as settled on the district’s behalf. Ask.
2. When is the next testing window? See above. This is the question the counselor exists to answer.
3. On the paid track, what is the fee and who submits to Texas Tech? The guidelines put the submission on the student. Confirm the amount and the mechanics before the 30-day clock matters.

What Texas CBE™ offers Midland families

We are not the district and we do not administer the exam. What we do is the preparation MISD says it does not supply: full-length mock exams in the real format, timed, scored by TEKS category, so a student walks in knowing whether they clear the bar rather than hoping.

The bar matters here more than in most districts, because Midland’s two tracks sit at 80 and 70. A student aiming at acceleration is aiming at the harder of the two.

Related guides

• Complete guide to Texas Credit by Exam
• Testing windows and registration deadlines by district
• Passing scores and retake rules
• Texas CBE district portal

Sources

• Midland ISD, “Credit by Exam for Accelerated Placement Without Prior Instruction (CBE/WOPI)” — passing standard, district-borne fee, grade ranges, GPA treatment, Texas Tech and UT Austin examinations. Checked 9 August 2026.
• Midland ISD, “Credit by Exam With Prior Instruction (CBE/WPI)” — 70 passing score, student-borne non-refundable fee. Checked 9 August 2026.
• Midland ISD, “Guidelines and Procedures for Credit by Examination With Prior Instruction” (PDF) — three-hour limit, half-credit split, counselor as campus contact, submission to Texas Tech, “the dates noted on the MISD website”.
• Midland ISD, “Application for Credit by Examination” (PDF) — 30-day rule, four signatures, fee-paid-by line, the 90 figure noted above.
• Texas Education Code §28.023 and 19 TAC §74.24 — the statewide 80 and 70 standards.