by According to the most recent academic accountability ratings, which assess how well schools are instructing pupils, Arlington ISD received a C.
The Texas Education Agency announced the state’s public schools’ A-F ratings for 2024 and 2025 on Friday. Over the course of the two years, Mansfield ISD moved closer to being an A district, whereas Arlington ISD and Kennedale ISD witnessed very modest improvements.
Because of scoring flaws made by the agency, Arlington schools superintendent Matt Smith said the grades don’t fully reflect the district’s improvement. According to him, the mistakes might lead to better scores for almost one-third of Arlington ISD’s campuses, which is why the district is contesting their state grades.
Smith stated, “I want our community to know the real data on how we did.”
Arlington ISD asked the organization to rescore some of the kids’ STAAR exams in late June. Since 2024, computers have been used to assess portions of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness instead of people.
An issue with the TEA’s rescoring software’s back end was reported to the district in July. Consequently, the 2025 ratings did not consider such testing.
Districts can challenge the ratings within 30 days. Smith, who has been in charge of Arlington schools since the beginning of 2024, stated that while he is pleased with the district’s efforts to improve academic achievement, he is still committed to making it even better.
Get Arlington news that matters
The stories you need to know about the neighborhood you adore. Every Thursday, right in your email.
We’re wired as a district to be better and to strive for improvement, and then you have a little time under our belts to realize what we really need to focus on,” Smith explained. That seems to be having an impact.
According to the agency’s A-F system, 16 campuses received a F rating in 2023. Nine campuses failed this year.
Reducing the number of failing schools is a positive move, but more work is needed to improve the F-rated campuses, Smith said.
According to Smith, a data-driven strategy that enables principals and a group of executive directors to identify areas for development has been crucial to the transformation.
We all have a duty to improve for the benefit of the children, and our system’s improvement machine is beginning to take shape, Smith added.
Smith has not held back from attacking Texas’s school grading system.
Only performance on the STAAR test is used to determine ratings at the elementary and junior high levels. Academic achievement, graduation rates, and students’ readiness for life after high school are the main factors used to determine ratings at the high school level.
Smith concurs that accountability should be placed on schools. But according to Smith, STAAR grades by themselves don’t fully reflect a school’s performance.
Smith remarked, “I wish our accountability system and state testing could adequately convey a school’s whole story, where we are, and what we are.” The present A-F system simply does not have it.
The ratings were excellent for Mansfield ISD. It was given a B overall. Between 2023 and 2025, the district’s A-rated campuses increased from nine to twenty.
According to the 2025 ratings, none of its 46 schools were given a failing grade.
The outcomes were exceptional, according to Kimberley Cantu, superintendent of Mansfield ISD.
“Our community can be extremely proud of its schools in the case of Mansfield ISD,” Cantu said in a statement. I am aware of this.
Additionally, Kennedale ISD’s district ratings improved. Its overall score rose from a 73 in 2024 to a 77 in 2025, although the district still received a C.
Kennedale Junior High rose from a B to a C in the same period, while R.F. Patterson Elementary went from a D in 2023 to a B in 2025.
Results from the previous year were delayed by a legal dispute over the state’s accountability system, which included the Texas Education Agency’s use of computer scoring.
Click here to learn more about the districts’ performance.
This narrative is still in progress and will be updated often.
Chris Moss works for the Arlington Report as a reporting fellow. [email protected] is his email address.
Decisions on news at the Arlington Report are decided without consulting our board members or sponsors. Find out more about our policy on editorial independence here.
Related
The Journalism Trust Initiative has accredited Fort Worth Report for upholding ethical journalism standards.
Republish this narrative
Noncommercial organizations are exempt from republishing fees. It is forbidden for businesses to operate without a license. For further information, get in touch with us.
Republish this article
The Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License governs this work.
- Look for the “Republish This Story” button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS). Do not copy stories straight from the front-end of our web-site.
-
You are required to follow the guidelines and use the republication tool when you share our content. The republication tool generates the appropriate html code.
-
You are required to add this language at the top of every republished story, including a link to the story.
This story was originally published by the Fort Worth Report. You may read
the original version here
.
- You can t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
-
If you use our stories in any other medium for example, newsletters or other email campaigns you must make it clear that the stories are from the Fort Worth Report. In all emails, link directly to the story at fortworthreport.org and not to your website.
-
If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using
@FortWorthReport
on Facebook and
@FortWorthReport
on Twitter.
-
You have to credit Fort Worth Report. Please use Author Name, Fort Worth Report in the byline. If you re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: This story was originally published by Fort Worth Report and include our website,
fortworthreport.org
. - You can t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
-
If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using
@FortWorthReport
on Facebook and
@FortWorthReport
on Twitter.
