While state curriculum changes and assessment shifts present ongoing hurdles, Board President Kristin Tassin applauded district and campus leadership for their “tailored interventions” to ensure every student continues to improve, while asking that the ongoing curriculum audit address gaps in math and social studies demonstrated by the data.
“These numbers reflect the hard work of every teacher in our district, every paraprofessional in our district, every principal in our district, and then the leadership team from this building and out into our campus level,” she said. “We can talk about it, and it's very different from executing it, and you guys are executing it.”
The highlights
The May 2025 STAAR scores, which were released in June, showed FBISD outperformed the state in all areas except Algebra and eight-grade math.
Stephens said other highlights, include:
- Language arts performance in grades 3-5 showed overall growth, credited to a strong focus on foundational literacy skills
- Mathematics showed an overall 2% district-wide increase and a 7-point gain at the masters level for third-grade students
- District-wide growth in fifth-grade science
- End-of-Course exam scores showed gains in Algebra I, Biology and U.S. History
- While eighth grade math scores appeared lower, Stephens many students took Algebra I instead, with high success rates—99% passing and 81% mastering
- Eighth-grade social studies showed decreases, due to recent state curriculum changes that reintroduced previously untested material
- Slight declines in English I and II, aligned with state-wide trends
Of the 20 campuses identified for targeted support based on leadership changes or performance data for the 2024-25 school year, 19 showed measurable growth in at least one academic area, said Jaretha Jordan, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning.
She said the one campus that hadn’t shown growth this year had jumped two letter grades in the accountability report for the 2023-24 school year, therefore requiring administrators to “dig deeper” for further growth.
For the 2025-26 school year, the district will continue to monitor these campuses while creating a new set of campuses to target, she said
“It wasn't just a teaching and learning department, it was organizational development and [campus staff] that came together ... committed to being intentional about supporting those campuses different from what we were in ways that were supporting other campuses.” Jordan said.
What they’re saying
Trustee Angie Hanon emphasized the importance of transparency regarding performance by student subpopulations including English learners, special education and economically disadvantaged students.
“We know that some of our populations bring up the average of the entire district,” she said. “When we get to see that everybody gets the understanding of just really how hard we're working to bring that period and bring growth for all kids.”
Another thing
Stephens said the state began using AI to grade writing assessments in late 2023, with only about 25% of the test to be reviewed by humans. While districts could appeal a score, he said in his experience, it isn’t likely that the score would increase.
Next Steps
The district will provide targeted campus support to include expanding Algebra I access to more 8th grade students, enhancing writing and assessment literacy, and using STAAR and Measurement of Academic Progress, or MAP, data to guide instruction and support student growth.
“It’s really simple for us,” he said. “What do you want our kids to know? How are we gonna know they learned it? What are we gonna do when they do learn so how are we gonna really support those students that need that extra intervention?”
Officials will discuss the state accountability ratings at the Aug. 18 meeting, Stephens said, with reports disaggregated data by student subgroups by the end of the year.
