Castleberry ISD held a special back-to-school kickoff event on Wednesday to start the school year on a positive note.
While the district did not do very well in some student achievement metrics on its last Texas Education Agency accountability report, it logged a pretty strong on-time graduation rate.
According to the report, 92.8% of its graduating seniors during the 2021-2022 school year earned their diplomas on time. Contrarily, only 35% of students scored at grade level on their STAAR exams.
For comparison, only 41% of Dallas ISD students scored at grade level on the STAAR. However, nearly 20% of graduating seniors earned their diplomas in four years.
Here’s some of what the Fort Worth Report recently published on Castleberry ISD’s recent kickoff event:
Castleberry ISD is going for gold.
The school district, which covers River Oaks, Sansom Park and parts of Fort Worth, was the first Tarrant County school district to kick off its 2024-25 school year on Aug. 7.
To celebrate, Superintendent Renee Smith-Faulkner slid on a toga, donned a golden sash and adorned a tainia, a Greek headband to resemble an Olympic torchbearer. Leading a procession of teachers into Castleberry High School’s gymnasium, the symbolism was fitting — as a torchbearer marks the start of each Olympic games, so too does Smith-Faulker, heralding the start of classes.
The pep rally, which is held annually by the district, is a way to get teachers excited for the coming year, and for district vendors to know their support is valued as a community partner, Smith-Faulker said.
“They’ll take this excitement into the first day,” Smith-Faulkner said. “Because they’re going to have really big things going on the first day of school.”