Fort Worth ISD’s self-reported A-F scores may be wrong, Texas Education Agency says
Some of the self-calculated A-F scores released last week by the Fort Worth Independent School District may be wrong.
The district released the self-calculated scores on Sept. 10, after a Travis County judge blocked the Texas Education Agency from releasing its official ratings. But it did so without first confirming its numbers with TEA.
A spokesman for TEA told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday that Fort Worth ISD officials submitted their scores for confirmation Tuesday, a week after releasing them publicly. When the agency reviewed the district’s self-calculated scores, it flagged a number of areas where the district’s calculations differed from the ones done by TEA. Because of the court order, the agency can’t state publicly which scores were incorrect. TEA officials also can’t tell Fort Worth ISD what the official scores are. The agency can only send the numbers back and ask the district to check its math.
On Thursday, Fort Worth ISD spokesperson Cesar Padilla said that district leaders think only one campus — World Languages Institute, a school of choice that specializes in bilingual education — would see a letter grade change, falling from an A to a B.
TEA confirmed Fort Worth ISD’s overall score of 70, giving the district a C rating, Padilla said.
At a school board meeting last week, district officials trumpeted the news that Fort Worth ISD had moved from a D in last year’s ratings — which were also self-calculated after official A-F grades were blocked by a separate court order — to a C rating this year. The district’s last official rating was a B, which it received in 2022.
According to its own ratings, the district also saw a 36% decline in D- or F-rated campuses compared with last year.
This story was originally published September 18, 2024 at 4:54 PM.
