Arlington ISD earned a C on its latest academic accountability ratings, which grade how well schools are educating students.
Friday, the Texas Education Agency released the A-F ratings for public schools across the state for both 2024 and 2025. Overall, Arlington ISD and Kennedale ISD saw moderate improvements in the two years, while Mansfield ISD inched closer to becoming an A district.
Arlington schools Superintendent Matt Smith said the ratings don’t tell the full story of the district’s progress because of scoring errors from the agency. The district is appealing its state grades because of the errors, which he said could result in improved ratings for nearly a third of Arlington ISD’s campuses.
“I want our community to know the real data on how we did,” Smith said.
In late June, Arlington ISD requested that the agency rescore a portion of STAAR tests taken by students. Sections of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness are now scored by computers rather than humans, a practice that began in 2024.
In July, the district was notified of an error on the back end of the TEA’s rescoring software. As a result, those tests were not taken into account for the 2025 ratings.
Districts have 30 days to file an appeal on the ratings. Smith, who has led Arlington schools since early 2024, said he is proud of the work the district has done in raising academic performance, but remains focused on improving it even further.
“You combine the fact that we’re wired, as a district, to be better and constantly try to improve, and then be able to have a little bit of time under our belts to see what we really need to hone in on,” Smith said. “I think that’s making a difference.”
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}})}();
In 2023, 16 campuses were rated F under the agency’s A-F system. This year, nine campuses failed.
While more work must be done to lift the F-rated campuses, lowering the number of schools failing is a step in the right direction, Smith said.
One key to the change has been a data-driven approach that allows principals and a team of executive directors to look for areas of improvement, Smith said.
“It’s all of our responsibility to be better for the sake of the kids, and that machine we have for improvement in our system is starting to take hold,” Smith said.
Smith has not shied away from criticizing the way Texas grades schools.
At the elementary and junior high level, the ratings are based solely on STAAR test performance. At the high school level, the ratings are based on academic success, graduation rates and how well students are prepared for life after high school.
Smith agrees that schools should be held accountable. However, ratings based on STAAR alone do not capture the full picture of a school’s success, Smith said.
“I wish there was a way in our accountability system and state testing to tell the full story of a school, where we are and what we are,” Smith said. “It just doesn’t exist in the current A-F system.”
Mansfield ISD excelled in the ratings. Overall, it received a B grade. The district saw the number of A-rated campuses rise from nine to 20 between 2023 and 2025.
None of its 46 schools received an F in the 2025 ratings.
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}})}();
Mansfield ISD Superintendent Kimberley Cantu said that the results were outstanding.
“In the case of Mansfield ISD, our community can be very, very proud of its schools,” Cantu said in a statement. “I know I am.”
Kennedale ISD also saw improvement in its district ratings. While it maintained a C grade for the district, its overall score increased from a 73 in 2024 to a 77 in 2025.
R.F. Patterson Elementary went from a D in 2023 to a B in 2025, while Kennedale Junior High went from a B to a C in the same time frame.
A legal battle over the state’s accountability system, including the Texas Education Agency’s use of computer scoring, delayed last year’s results.
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}})}();
To find more details on how the districts did, click here.
This is a developing story and will be updated frequently.
Chris Moss is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@fortworthreport.org.
At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org/2025/08/15/heres-how-arlington-area-schools-fared-in-texas-a-f-ratings/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org”>Arlington Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=295551&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://fortworthreport.org/2025/08/15/heres-how-arlington-area-schools-fared-in-texas-a-f-ratings/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/fortworthreport.org/p.js”></script>