A new report issued Monday<\/a> found Fort Worth posted its strongest STAAR performance thus far in 2026, with high-poverty campuses leading the gains.\u00a0<\/p>\n Across STAAR exams taken by third through eighth graders who attend schools in the city, 39% of test results met or exceeded proficiency in reading, math, science and social studies, according to a new analysis from the Fort Worth Education Partnership<\/a>. That\u2019s up from 37% last year and 35% two years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n The report<\/a> analyzes schools located within Fort Worth\u2019s city limits, including campuses operated by 12 traditional public school districts and 10 charter school systems. Those schools serve 165,597 students, including 63,060 enrolled at Fort Worth ISD campuses.<\/p>\n But improvement was not even across subjects or neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Brent Beasley, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Education Partnership, said the result is its highest citywide mark on record, exceeding 2019 results by a narrow 0.2 percentage points.<\/p>\n Reading proficiency reached 48% \u2014 also a record \u2014 while math remained at 36%.\u00a0<\/p>\n Math, Beasley said, is now an area that needs additional attention \u2014 without allowing reading improvement to stall.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want it to be like a whack-a-mole situation where now we turn all of our attention to math, and reading starts to decline,\u201d Beasley said.<\/p>\n Several Fort Worth ISD campuses were among the largest year-over-year improvers in the city.<\/p>\n Performance in eight of Fort Worth\u2019s 10 council districts improved, with nearly 20 percentage points separating the city\u2019s highest- and lowest-performing districts.<\/p>\n One of the report\u2019s standout findings: Schools serving the highest concentrations of low-income students were more likely to improve.<\/p>\n The report found 78% of campuses with very high rates of low-income students gained ground. Fewer than half of campuses where less than 50% of students are low income improved.<\/p>\n Those schools in poorer neighborhoods are \u201cstill far behind, but they\u2019re gaining ground, Beasley said.<\/p>\n Reading hits a high-water mark<\/p>\n Fort Worth schools continued to perform best in reading of all the subjects tested.<\/p>\n The greater improvement in reading scores may be due to years of concentrated attention on literacy from school systems, city leaders and community groups, including increased investment in reading instruction, Beasley said.<\/p>\n Fort Worth ISD, for example, shifted millions of dollars toward reading instruction under former Superintendent Karen Molinar and revamped early literacy instruction, curriculum and classroom assessments.<\/p>\n But Beasley cautioned against claiming those efforts alone caused this year\u2019s increase. He said he believes the recent gains reflect increased attention from schools and the broader community to improving academic performance after years of stagnant or declining results.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also pointed to another reason reading may have rebounded faster than math: Math suffered a deeper disruption during the pandemic and can be harder for children to learn independently, outside a classroom.<\/p>\n Fort Worth ISD leaders have pointed to improving reading results while acknowledging that math has been slower to move.<\/p>\n At state Rep. Nicole Collier\u2019s Aug. 4 education town hall, Superintendent Peter Licata credited the gains to changes made under Molinar \u2014 that is, before the state takeover.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNot so much math, but reading went up a little bit,\u201d Licata said.<\/p>\n The district\u2019s approach going forward will emphasize strong core instruction, accelerated learning, frequent use of student data and support for classroom teachers, Licata said. More consistent instruction across campuses is necessary to narrow achievement gaps among schools, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n High-poverty schools gained ground faster<\/p>\n Beasley said the gains are encouraging because they show that poverty does not have to determine a school\u2019s academic trajectory, even though it remains strongly tied to student performance.<\/p>\n \u201cHigh-poverty schools can grow and improve and they can catch up,\u201d Beasley said.<\/p>\n In City Council District 2, which covers much of the Northside and Diamond Hill-Jarvis area, the share of Diamond Hill Elementary students working at grade level improved by 16 percentage points, to 41%, the largest increase listed in the new report.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said he believes increased attention and resources at historically low-performing campuses are contributing. But there is an important limitation.<\/p>\n Schools that begin with substantially lower performance also have more room to post large gains. The Fort Worth Education Partnership did not adjust its analysis to account for campuses\u2019 different starting points, Beasley said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gets harder (to improve) as your proficiency gets higher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The citywide progress also remains far from the outcome Fort Worth Education Partnership wants, Beasley said.<\/p>\n Even after two consecutive years of improvement, roughly 6 in 10 STAAR test results still fell below the state\u2019s grade-level standard.<\/p>\n Beasley compared Fort Worth\u2019s position to a driver who has realized they were traveling in the wrong direction and finally turned around.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going in the right direction,\u201d Beasley said. \u201cWe\u2019re making some progress, but we\u2019re still a long way from the destination.\u201d<\/p>\n Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org<\/a> or @matthewsgroi1<\/a>.<\/p>\n Disclosure: Fort Worth Education Partnership is a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Pete Geren leads the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Laurie George is a member of the Report\u2019s reader advisory council. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. 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