Fort Worth ISD officials touted that the district “kicked butt” in its unofficial, self-calculated A-F accountability ratings, but administrators’ math may be wrong, according to the Texas Education Agency.

In a Sept. 18 email, TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky told the Report that on Sept. 17 — a week after Fort Worth ISD publicly presented the scores — the district asked for verification of its self-calculated ratings. 

“Following review by TEA, the agency indicated that there were some issues with FWISD’s local methodology,” Kobersky said. 

TEA’s notification of possibly inaccurate data comes as trustees review Superintendent Angélica Ramsey’s performance amid criticism of the district’s academic achievement, which Mayor Mattie Parker described in late August as “unacceptable.” 

Fort Worth ISD spokesperson Cesar Padilla said TEA’s verification showed that one campus — the World Languages Institute — and its score could be corrected following recalculations. The district’s C rating still stands, Padilla said.

The Report asked TEA to confirm Fort Worth ISD’s statement.

Fort Worth ISD released Sept. 10 its self-assigned ratings for the district’s more than 100 campuses and the district itself. Overall, the district gave itself a D for 2023 and a C for 2024, both drops from the B the state issued during its last official ratings in 2022. TEA has been blocked from releasing official ratings for the past two years because of lawsuits.

Deputy Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury presented the unverified ratings to the school board during a Sept. 10 workshop and described improvements as the district “kicking butt,” a comment he repeated five times during his presentation. He told trustees that administrators wanted to provide them with the most accurate data.

“I also had the team go to TEA and do an additional check because if we’re going to say we are a C, we better be right,” Choudhury said, touting the relationships district administrators have with the agency.

Ahead of the workshop, the district issued a news release celebrating what it described as improvements in its A-F accountability ratings based on internal calculations. The release did not state the district double-checked its calculations with TEA before making the figures public.

In an Aug. 14 letter, the TEA told districts they now have access to data and formulas to aid them in calculating scores internally. However, TEA is available for districts that would like to verify their calculations with the agency, the letter said.

Castleberry ISD, a seven-school system in Fort Worth, verified its self-calculated accountability ratings before issuing them to the public on Aug. 21 — calling the step, whether required or not, a no-brainer.

“Considering all of the steps and room for human error, I wanted to be sure that what we released to the public and educators was accurate,” Castleberry ISD Superintendent Renee Smith-Faulkner told the Report, adding she would only present the data with TEA’s verification.

Parents are questioning why Fort Worth ISD didn’t take the approach Castleberry ISD, its neighbor, did.

Three words came to mind when Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, executive director of Parent Shield, learned Fort Worth ISD’s math may be incorrect: “I knew it.”

Her organization, which teaches parents how to navigate the educational system, has pushed Fort Worth ISD to be transparent in its presentation of academic achievement data to parents.

Previous presentations to the school board on district-wide performance on the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress and even state standardized tests raised red flags for Dorsey-Hollins. 

Another warning sign for her? Trustee Tobi Jackson’s questioning of discrepancies between the district’s A-F ratings data and numbers from the state.

“Who releases an unofficial report? Who boasts and brags on a report that’s not been verified? Who does that?” Dorsey-Hollins told the Report. “Again, that just seems like a very intentional attempt to mislead.”

Dorsey-Hollins did not see the Sept. 10 presentation intended for parents to make the best decisions for their children.

“That board meeting was to plead the case for Dr. Ramsey and show that numbers were improving — and it was just an act,” Dorsey-Hollins said.

The school board needs to press district staff to ensure information is correct before presented to the public, Dorsey-Hollins said. The unverified data leads to other questions for the leader of Parent Shield.

“What other information needs to be fact checked?”

Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @MatthewSgroi1.

Jacob Sanchez is a senior education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez. 

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.