Fort Worth ISD grads are beating Texas college and career-readiness average
As thousands of Fort Worth ISD students walked the graduation stage this month, seniors in the district are becoming increasingly more prepared for college, careers, military or other post-graduate plans, according to state education data.
The most recent college, career, and military readiness data released by the Texas Education Agency shows a 5 percentage-point growth in Fort Worth ISD students who meet readiness standards — from 81.1% in 2022-23 to 86.1% in 2023-24. That number eclipses the state average of 81.8% of graduating seniors who meet CCMR standards.
The state’s CCMR data lags behind many other measurement areas to allow recent high school graduates more time to pursue their post-graduate plans to more accurately judge their readiness. Data for 2024-25 graduates has not yet been released.
State data also shows that the number of Fort Worth ISD students who are college ready grew from 75.7% to 82.8%, which is well above the state average of 70%. The district is also above the state average in Texas Success Initiative Assessment results, a mandatory test that determines college readiness across core subjects, in both English language arts and math.
Fort Worth ISD’s CCMR improvements came before new state-appointed leadership voted to cut dozens of staff positions across the district, including a number of post-secondary specialists that focused on college, career, and military readiness. Those positions included the director of CCMR, Career and Technical Education specialists and instructors, and CTE assessment specialists.
Superintendent Peter Licata and other district leaders pointed to overall student enrollment decline as the reason for staff cuts, saying the district needs to “start from square one” to rebuild those programs with even more support systems for students.
How many Fort Worth ISD high schoolers are meeting grade level?
Despite most students meeting CCMR standards prior to graduation and an overall district graduation rate of over 82%., the overwhelming majority of high schoolers in English I and II courses are not meeting or above expectations on STAAR testing in English.
According to TEA data, just 11% of high school students who took the English II end-of-course STAAR exam after the fall 2025 semester scored a meets grade level or above rating. Only 30% scored approaches grade level and above, with the other 70% not meeting performance standards.
Those results are still slightly improved from where English II students stood after the fall 2024 semester. That semester, 79% of English II students did not meet performance standards, with just 21% approaching grade level or above, and 4% meeting or above grade level. In fall 2022, the number of English II students who did not meet grade level was as high as 80%.
When Licata and state-appointed board chair Pete Geren first assumed their roles in March, addressing grade-level performance in English and reading was a major priority.
“Student outcomes, student outcomes, student outcomes,” Geren repeated at his introductory news conference in March. “Most of our children cannot read at grade level. Not few, not some, not many — most … In our district, 63% can’t. That’s 40,000 of our children that cannot read at grade level.”
How is CCMR data measured?
Despite below-average performance from Fort Worth ISD students in end-of-course English I and English II exams, the district’s seniors are still ready for college, careers or the military at a rate above the state average. That’s because the state’s system for determining that metric has nearly a dozen categories, ranging from enlisting in the military to securing an associate degree.
The Texas Education Agency determines which students meet CCMR criteria through 10 different categories in total. Those include: meeting Texas Success criteria in reading/language arts and math, completing dual-credit courses, meeting Advanced Placement criteria, earning an associate degree, completing dual-enrollment courses, earning industry-based certifications, graduating with completed Individualized Education Programs, graduating under an advanced diploma plan, earning a level I or level II certificate, or enlisting in the U.S. Armed Forces or Texas National Guard.
Each campus in the state is also given a CCMR raw score, which is the number of graduates who are college, career or military ready divided by the total number of graduates. For example, if a school has 160 students who meet CCMR standards and a total enrollment of 240, the school’s raw CCMR score is 67.
In 2024, Fort Worth ISD graduated a total of 4,716 students. The number of students who met CCMR criteria was 4,062, according to TEA data. Those students achieved that standing through different avenues. More than 75% of graduates met Texas Success Initiative criteria in both reading/language arts and math, 16.4% met criterion scores on AP exams, 13.9% earned at least three dual-credit courses in either RLA or math, and 4.1% earned an associate degree by the end of August following high school graduation. Less than 2 percent of students met criteria through a workforce certification or enlisting in the U.S. Armed Forces, state data shows.
In total, Fort Worth ISD’s number of graduates who met CCMR criteria rose from 3,772 during the 2022-23 school year to just over 4,000 for the 2023-24 school year.
Editor’s note: Pete Geren is the president and chief executive officer of the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, which is a funder of the Star-Telegram’s Crossroads Lab. The Star-Telegram retains independence in all coverage decisions.
