Across City of Fort Worth, STAAR test scores dropped this year. Here’s what to know.
Across the city, only about one in three Fort Worth students met grade level on last spring’s state test, according to a new analysis of assessment data.
The nonprofit Fort Worth Education Partnership released its annual report showing a breakdown of state test scores across all parts of the city on Monday. According to the report, 35% of students across all grades and subjects performed on grade level on last spring’s state test, a one-point decline compared to last year.
The report offers a look at how students in schools across the city fared on last spring’s State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, broken out by council district instead of by school district or charter network. The organization’s leaders say it’s an attempt to help parents and city leaders make sense of the city’s complicated education system. The Fort Worth city limits are divided up among a dozen school districts, and a comparatively small but growing share of the city’s students are enrolled in public charter schools.
The report notes that stagnant academic performance wasn’t confined to one part of the city. Although scores varied, there was no city council district in which more than half the students were on grade level.
The biggest declines over the past two years were in reading — a three-point dip compared to 2022 — and science — an eight-point drop. Across all grade levels tested, 43% scored on grade level in reading.
Brent Beasley, the nonprofit’s CEO, noted that those numbers indicate that a majority of Fort Worth students can’t read well. That fact has implications not only for the students themselves, but also for the city as a whole, he said. If most of the city’s students are reading below grade level, there’s reason to worry about whether they’ll be able to succeed in the workforce after graduation, he said.
“This means far too many of our kids will not have full access to a path to prosperity,” Beasley said. “I consider that to be a moral and civic crisis.”
Fort Worth ISD continues to lose market share
The report also notes that the Fort Worth Independent School District’s share of the city’s overall educational picture continued to shrink last year. About 39% of the city’s public school students were enrolled in the district last year, down from 41% the previous year. As recently as the 2018-19 school year, about half of the city’s students were enrolled in Fort Worth ISD.
Even as the city’s population booms, Fort Worth ISD is struggling to cope with declining enrollment. The district lost about 17% of its enrollment between 2016 and 2023. District officials point to a number of factors, including increased competition from charter schools and housing trends. Over the past five years, many of Fort Worth’s new housing developments have gone up in the northern and southern edges of the city, in areas that fall outside Fort Worth ISD’s boundaries.
The report notes that the city’s overall public school enrollment grew by about 10,000 students compared to the 2022-23 school year, with most of that growth being concentrated in charter schools and suburban school districts. About 48% of Fort Worth’s public school students went to one of the other 11 districts that cover parts of the city, and 13% went to charter schools, according to the report.
