‘Time to turn the corner’: Lawmakers express support for TEA action in FWISD
Fort Worth area lawmakers are expressing support for state intervention in the city’s largest school district, saying schools have gone too long with too little academic progress.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath notified officials in the Fort Worth Independent School District on Monday that the district could be subject to a state takeover after one of its campuses, Forest Oak 6th Grade Center, received a failure rating for five consecutive years.
Texas law requires the state education commissioner to step in anytime a campus receives five consecutive failure ratings in the state’s A-F accountability scores. The commissioner may close the campus down or take over the district, removing its elected school board and replacing it with a state-appointed board of managers.
Complicating matters in this case is the fact that Fort Worth ISD has already closed Forest Oak 6th. The district shut the school down last year and moved its students to Forest Oak Middle School. Over Christmas break, the district moved another school, the International Newcomer Academy, into the building formerly occupied by Forest Oak 6th.
In a letter to Superintendent Karen Molinar and board President Roxanne Martinez, Morath notes that Forest Oak 6th isn’t the district’s only struggling school. It was one of 77 campuses that received a D or F rating in the state’s 2023 A-F scores, which were released last month after being tied up in court for two years.
School districts have the right to appeal their A-F scores, and Fort Worth ISD officials have said they plan to do so. Ratings are finalized in August, and Morath said in the letter that he won’t take action until then.
“It is unfortunate to be placed in such a position, as it represents an underlying fact that many students have been so significantly harmed that the American dream may be out of their reach,” Morath wrote. “While the actions required of me by the statute are serious, they are absolutely necessary for the students of Fort Worth ISD.”
Lawmakers react to potential FWISD state takeover
Sen. Phil King, a Weatherford Republican who represents about half of Fort Worth ISD, said the Texas Education Agency “has an obligation to take a very, very hard look at taking over the school district.” The district has gone too long without meaningful improvement in its academic performance, he said, and state education officials need to do something substantial to turn the district around.
King, who is a Fort Worth ISD graduate, met with Morath on Monday before the commissioner’s letter was released to discuss the district’s STAAR scores. He noted that Fort Worth ISD has consistently trailed behind all other big urban school districts in Texas in terms of the percentage of students meeting grade level on the state test.
That being said, King also pointed out that the commissioner hasn’t made a decision about what action to take in Fort Worth ISD. If the district shows substantial improvement in the 2024 A-F scores, which are still tied up in court as a part of a separate lawsuit, the conversation could change, he said. But if not, he thinks a state takeover is likely.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, who has been one of the loudest voices pushing for academic improvement in Fort Worth ISD, said in an emailed statement that the district’s A-F scores don’t come as a surprise. But Parker has expressed confidence in Molinar, who took over as the district’s superintendent earlier this year.
“This is sobering data, but those who have followed the district are not surprised,” Parker said. “Dr. Molinar has already taken substantial steps — prior to this letter — to improve outcomes, leading with transparency and urgency to turn the district around.”
Sen. Kelly Hancock, a North Richland Hills Republican who represents part of the district, noted that, if not for the lawsuit that delayed the release of the 2023 scores, Morath would have intervened two years ago. Fort Worth ISD officials had their own campus achievement data and should have known that a state takeover was a possibility, he said.
Hancock pointed to Houston ISD as an example of the academic progress that big urban school districts can make following a state takeover. The Houston school district has seen gains on the state test since TEA placed it under a state-appointed board of managers in 2023. But it has also seen turmoil, with a sharp uptick in the number of teachers, campus principals and students leaving the district.
Hancock, a former school board member in Birdville ISD, said he doesn’t think the fact that the district already closed Forest Oak 6th should have any bearing on the question of whether Morath takes over the district. Shifting students from one school to another, as the district did when it moved sixth-graders from Forest Oak 6th to Forest Oak Middle School, doesn’t result in meaningful improvement, he said.
“Our students, our community (deserve) better than what we’ve received, and it’s time to turn the corner,” he said.
