Mayor Mattie Parker calls for ‘bold, unified approach’ to turn Fort Worth ISD around
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said there’s a growing sense of urgency among residents about turning the city’s public education system around.
Parker told the Fort Worth Independent School District’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday evening that the city needs a “bold, unified approach to turn our schools around and become the district of choice for our families.”
Parker spoke during the public comment section of Tuesday’s school board meeting, hours after sending a letter to each board member calling on them to do more to move students forward academically. The letter was co-signed by every city council member, three former Fort Worth mayors and the heads of several local philanthropic organizations.
During a press gaggle following her remarks, Parker said her office began getting a large volume of calls about the state of the school district recently, following episodes of “wrangling” among board members. Over the past few months, the board has abruptly changed course on plans to consolidate seven low-enrollment middle schools and failed to pass a five-year plan that included academic goals.
During the meeting, Parker, who ran the education advocacy nonprofit Tarrant To and Through Partnership before she was elected mayor, noted that the district’s lack of progress for years is an indication that the problem isn’t only a product of the pandemic. Fort Worth ISD’s state test scores have been stagnant for at least a decade, even as other big urban districts have made progress.
In 2015, Fort Worth ISD and Dallas ISD were exactly on par, with 28% of students across all grades and subjects testing on grade level on the STAAR exams. But since then, Dallas ISD has seen steady improvement, climbing to 42% of students on grade level last year. Fort Worth ISD, meanwhile, was one percentage point better than where it stood nearly a decade before.
Dallas ISD’s path to improvement, which came out of a groundswell of local concern and happened through focused leadership from the top, is one way a district can turn around, Parker said. At the other end of the spectrum, she said, is the example offered by Houston ISD, which is in the early days of its second year of a state takeover.
Parker told journalists there’s still time to turn the Fort Worth district around and avoid a Houston ISD-style state takeover, but the district and the broader community need to act quickly. She wouldn’t say whether she thought the district needed a new superintendent, but said the board and district officials need to seek out partnerships with the city and the nonprofit sector. Many potential partners are eager to work with the district, she said — school leaders only need to ask.
The district and board members have not made any public statements in response to Parker’s comments. The board meeting was ongoing Tuesday night to address other items on the agenda.
This story was originally published August 27, 2024 at 7:37 PM.
