Fort Worth ISD released its A-F scores. Take a look at how your school fared.

About 16,000 fewer students in the Fort Worth Independent School District are attending D- or F-rated schools this year, according to accountability score estimates the district released Tuesday.

The Texas Education Agency is barred from releasing statewide A-F scores under a court order issued last month. Fort Worth ISD, like several other districts in the state, calculated its own anticipated accountability scores based on the state education agency’s scoring rubric. District officials are scheduled to present the scores at a school board meeting Tuesday evening .

However, unlike other districts, Fort Worth ISD didn’t confirm its own scores with TEA before releasing them publicly, a spokesperson for the agency said.

This year is the second year in a row that state A-F ratings have been blocked in court. But those court orders don’t preclude districts from calculating and releasing their own scores. Based on its own calculations, Fort Worth ISD improved from a score of 64 in 2023 — which would have been a D rating, had letter grades been issued last year — to a 70 this year, making it a C-rated district. The last official rating the district received was a B in 2022.

The district also saw a 36% decline in D- or F-rated campuses compared with last year, district officials said. Most notably, Sagamore Hill and Springdale elementary schools climbed from F ratings last year to B ratings this year, district officials said.

But not every campus saw growth. Woodway Elementary School’s score declined from a 74 last year to a 58 this year, falling from a C rating to an F. M.L. Phillips Elementary School’s score declined from a 65 to a 51, a D to an F. And both Rufino Mendoza and Hubbard Heights elementary school’s scores fell by 10 points, taking both campuses from a D to an F.

STAAR scores dictate ratings — mostly

District accountability ratings are based in part on how students perform on the state of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, exam. Fort Worth ISD’s performance on the state test has been stagnant in recent years, with less than a third of students scoring on grade level in reading and only about a quarter doing so in math.

But student achievement only makes up one part of the state education agency’s scoring formula. The formula’s two other scoring components are “closing the gaps,” which looks at performance gaps among different student groups, and “school progress,” which looks at the amount of academic growth students made over the course of the year.

Superintendent Angélica Ramsey said the improvement in scores was a testament to the dedication of the district’s teachers and staff.

“We’re especially proud of the gains made in our high-need schools, and we remain committed to ensuring that all students, no matter their background or where they live, have access to high-quality education that prepares them for success in college, careers, and community leadership,” Ramsey said.

State education officials planned to release A-F scores last month, but a Travis County judge blocked them in response to a lawsuit from five districts across the state. Those districts claim the scores are invalid because they’re based on flawed STAAR exams. Among other things, districts take issue with the state’s new electronic grading system for constructed response questions.

Since then, a number of districts across the state, including the Dallas and Houston independent school districts, have released their own scores. Fort Worth ISD isn’t the first Tarrant County district to release its own A-F ratings. Last month, officials in the Castleberry Independent School District announced that the district improved from a 76 in the 2022-23 school year to an 82 in 2023-24, according to calculations the district verified with TEA.