Fort Bend ISD students outscored state averages in every subject except one in the 2026 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exams administered this spring to grades third through eighth and STAAR end-of-course assessments administered to high schoolers.

Some context: The Texas Education Agency released statewide and district-specific test scores for the STAAR math, reading and social studies exams June 16 and the STAAR EOC Algebra I, English I, English II, Biology and U.S. History exams on June 10. STAAR science scores will be released July 31.

Diving in deeper: Data shows Fort Bend ISD students performed above the state average in 17 subjects, although the district showed below the state average in seventh grade math. Meanwhile, district students saw equal or improved performance year-over-year in all exams except:

• Third grade math
• Fourth grade math
• Seventh grade math
• Eighth grade social studies
• Third grade reading
• Fourth grade reading
• Sixth grade reading
• U.S. History

Florida-based Escapology is now offering escape rooms adventures in Sugar Land Town Square, officials confirmed. 

What to expect: Players are locked inside a themed room and have 60 minutes to escape using hidden clues to solve puzzles along the way, according to its website. There are seven themes available at the Sugar Land location including Scooby-Doo, Batman, a haunted house, murder mansion and an art heist.

• 2248 Texas Drive, Sugar Land

Among students learning English in Greater Houston area public school districts, Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic were the most common home languages spoken in the 2025-26 school year, according to Texas Education Agency data.

The breakdown: Emergent Bilingual students are students “in the process of acquiring English and [who have] another language as the primary language,” as previously reported by Community Impact.

In regions 4 and 6—which comprise most of the public school districts in the Greater Houston area—the most common home language spoken by emergent bilingual students was Spanish, according to TEA data released April 27. However, the number of Spanish-speaking students decreased year over year in both regions.

• Vietnamese with 8,742 students across both regions
• Arabic with 5,777 students across both regions
• Urdu with 4,644 students across both regions
• Mandarin with 3,974 students across both regions

Need to catch up on Community Impact’s coverage from last week? Check out five trending stories from the South Houston area from June 29-July 3.

1. New ice cream shop opens in Pearland Town Center

2. Fort Bend Care Center to add new education and community center

3. METRO announces new rail station named after Joe Ramirez

4. Brooklyn Pizzeria opens Fulshear area location

5. New ice cream, candy shop opens in Texas City