‘Unacceptable’: Fort Worth mayor calls on school leaders to boost student achievement
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker is calling on board members in the city’s largest school district to do more to move its students forward academically, saying lackluster educational outcomes hamper students’ opportunities after high school.
In a letter to board members in the Fort Worth Independent School District, Parker noted that Fort Worth is the fastest-growing major city in the country, and said the city is proud of its cultural richness and growth in business and higher education.
“A great city demands a great public education system, and our future depends on it,” Parker wrote. “Fort Worth ISD is one of 12 school districts in the City of Fort Worth, and unfortunately, it has not kept pace with our city’s rapid ascent.”
The letter, which was co-signed by a number of other city council members and leaders of businesses, philanthropic groups and advocacy organizations, went to every member of the school board ahead of its meeting Tuesday evening. Parker was also scheduled to speak during the public comment section of Tuesday’s board meeting.
In the letter, Parker noted that Fort Worth ISD’s state test scores lag behind those of other large urban districts across the state. On last spring’s state tests, 33% of Fort Worth ISD’s third-graders scored on grade level in reading, placing the district nine points behind Dallas ISD and 12 points behind Houston ISD. She also noted that the district came in 22nd out of the 24 Texas districts that serve more than 20,000 students with similar student populations.
“These results are unacceptable,” Parker wrote. “For our city’s children, these results can significantly narrow their ability to access the life and opportunities that they want and deserve. And for our city, there are significant long-term consequences in the areas of workforce, economic development, poverty, public health, and much more.”
Parker called on the board to set clear, ambitious student achievement goals, implement high-quality instruction in every classroom and prioritize academic intervention for struggling students. She also called on Fort Worth ISD to pause spending on bond-funded building projects until the district has a facilities plan “that enhances teacher capacity and student resources.”
The letter comes two weeks after a closed-door meeting involving Parker, Superintendent Angélica Ramsey and a number of other city leaders. Neither the mayor’s office nor the district would offer details about what was discussed at the Aug. 9 meeting. A Fort Worth ISD spokesperson said only that Parker invited Ramsey and her deputies “to attend a meeting with community members to provide information regarding the district.”
Fort Worth test scores show little progress
During a Fort Worth City Council public comment meeting last week, several parents and community leaders called on city officials to do more to support public education. Pete Geren, president of the nonprofit Sid W. Richardson Foundation, told council members that democracy requires an educated and engaged citizenry.
Geren, a former congressman, noted that state test scores show that a majority of students in Fort Worth schools can’t read well. Literacy is a foundational piece of our system of self-government, including municipal government, he said. When Fort Worth schools graduate students who can’t read proficiently, it leaves those students unprepared to participate in democracy, he said.
“We are failing most — most — of our kids,” Geren said. “This is an all hands on deck moment.”
The city’s stagnant academic progress isn’t confined to Fort Worth ISD schools. State test scores across all schools in Fort Worth declined this year, according to a report released this month by the nonprofit Fort Worth Education Partnership. According to the report, 35% of students across all grades and subjects performed on grade level on last spring’s state test, a one-point decline compared to last year.
Fort Worth ISD started the current school year without a set of codified academic goals. At a board meeting last month, district officials presented a proposed five-year strategic plan that included goals for academic achievement and areas where the district should invest in hopes of reaching those goals. The plan had been in the works for months, but the meeting marked the first time it had been seen in public.
Board President Camille Rodriguez pressed for a vote, saying the district needed to have a plan in place before the start of the new school year. But the board rejected the proposal by a vote of 5-2, with two board members absent. Some members who voted against the proposal said they didn’t object to any of the plan’s details, but wanted to allow more time for public input. Ramsey said this month that district leaders could bring the plan back to the board in September.
The failed vote on the five-year plan came two months after the board abruptly dropped plans to consolidate seven low-enrollment middle schools into three larger campuses. All seven schools were targeted for renovations as a part of the bond issue voters approved in November 2021. The district hosted a series of community meetings to talk about the proposals and gathered public input through a form on its website. But at a May 29 meeting, Rodriguez pulled an item dealing with school consolidation from the agenda, with no discussion or explanation, and said the district would proceed with renovations as scheduled.
Education advocates hope letter spurs action
Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, director of the education advocacy group Parent Shield Fort Worth and one of the co-signers of Mayor Parker’s letter, said she hoped the letter and Parker’s visit would help board members and district leaders recognize that students are in crisis. After years of stagnant test scores, the entire city needs to come together to push its education system forward, she said. That effort needs to include city leaders and families as well as the school district itself, she said.
Dorsey-Hollins said she also hopes the letter spurs more parents into action. Although there hasn’t been as much momentum as she’d like, she said she’s seen more parents start to notice the lack of progress in schools in Fort Worth and advocate for change. She pointed to the number of parents who showed up to last week’s city council meeting to advocate for education as an encouraging sign.
Bob Ray Sanders, director of communications for the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce and another co-signer of the letter, said Fort Worth residents have watched for decades as Fort Worth ISD boards adopted one five-year plan after another, with little to show for it. Each of those plans included lofty academic goals, but at the end of those five-year periods, the district was nowhere closer to meeting them, he said.
Sanders, who is an honoree on Fort Worth ISD’s Wall of Fame, said lackluster educational outcomes have an impact on the city in terms of economic development. The city can justifiably brag about its rate of population growth, he said, but many of the young people coming out of high school aren’t prepared to participate in government or business. If that continues, Fort Worth will fall behind, he said.
But even more worrisome, Sanders said, is the impact on students themselves. He noted that students who can’t read on grade level by third grade — a group that currently includes two-thirds of the district’s third-graders — aren’t likely to catch up.
“There is not much of a future for you if you don’t come out of school with a real education,” Sanders said.
Staff writer Harrison Mantas contributed to this report
Disclaimer: The Sid W. Richardson Foundation supports the Star-Telegram’s education coverage through its Crossroads Lab. All editorial decisions are made independently.
This story was originally published August 27, 2024 at 4:50 PM.
