Plan offers hope for worst Fort Worth schools

Kent Scribner was hired as superintendent of the 86,000-student Fort Worth school district 18 months ago with one overarching goal: improving student performance, especially at the nearly two dozen schools that failed to meet state educational measures.

It’s clear Scribner is doggedly determined to succeed.

He quickly picked student literacy as the place to start. Only 30 percent of Fort Worth third-graders read at grade level, a key to future academic success.

Last fall, the school district and other city leaders and philanthropic organizations launched the Fort Worth Literacy Partnership, aiming for 100 percent of third-graders reading at grade level by 2025.

On Tuesday, Scribner laid out his next initiative.

He wants to turn five of the district’s chronically under-performing schools into leadership academies, recruiting teams of the district’s top teachers and principals and devoting extra resources, including more money, to turn those schools around.

The effort will be backed by a $1 million grant from the Richard Rainwater Charitable Foundation.

The targets: Mitchell Boulevard Elementary and Forest Oak Middle School in southeast Fort Worth, John T. White Elementary on the east side, Como Elementary on the west and Logan Elementary in Stop Six.

Students at each of those schools are at least 90 percent minority, at least 80 percent economically disadvantaged and have high mobility rates, meaning 20 percent to 40 percent change schools before the end of the academic year.

District administrators are building a list of about 200 teachers and principals with the district’s best track records for improving student performance. About 150 of them will be offered jobs at the new leadership academies — with a $10,000 pay raise for teachers and $15,000 for principals.

Enrichment activities and tutoring will extend the academy day until 5:30 p.m. Students will wear uniforms. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be available.

Scribner will help get parents involved. School buildings will receive facelifts.

This sort of thing has worked elsewhere. In fact, an elementary school initiative worked in Fort Worth in the late 1990s.

Bet on Scribner to make it work this time, too.

This story was originally published February 28, 2017 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Plan offers hope for worst Fort Worth schools."