Turnaround plans are a test for superintendent

Kent Scribner, the new superintendent Fort Worth school board members hired in September, has a clearly developed philosophy about the task before him.

“It’s not my job to run the district,” he says. “It’s my job to make sure the district runs well.”

By that, he says, he means putting strong people in the right positions (“I don’t believe in managers. I believe in leaders.”), under the right administrative structure (“It’s my goal to flatten the organization” and “If you have multiple bosses, you have no bosses.” ) and making sure they help students learn.

He’s already shown that he can do more than talk a good game. In February, he slashed 10 jobs from his top administrative team and reassigned 70 central office personnel to schools where their help is needed, a $1.3 million annual classroom impact.

Now he faces a severe challenge, one that will probably beset him as long as he leads the Fort Worth ISD. It’s central to why he was hired.

District administrators and leaders at 11 Fort Worth schools, all rated “improvement required” by the Texas Education Agency for two or more straight years, are developing state-mandated turnaround plans.

Those plans must be drafted by May 2. They’ll face public comment and then approval by the school board at the end of May. State Education Commissioner Mike Morath will approve or reject them in June.

Much as he says his job is to make sure others are doing the best they can to meet district goals, Scribner can’t escape being held directly responsible for the success of these plans.

He has acknowledged that “student achievement could be much, much better” in Fort Worth ISD. These under-performing schools are where that problem must first be fixed.

Scribner’s fingerprints must be all over these plans. No matter how much work others put into them, they will be his as well as theirs.

Nobody expects overnight turnarounds. Two schools, A.M. Pate and Maude I. Logan elementaries in east Fort Worth, have been rated “improvement required” four years running.

Four others have been assigned that rating for three consecutive years. Five more, including O.D. Wyatt High School, Forest Oak Middle School and the International Newcomer Academy, have been on the improvement list for two years.

Each school holds promise.

The rating system for Texas public schools includes student scores on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests, but it also evaluates student progress, closing performance gaps and post-secondary readiness.

We should all expect steady progress.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 10:47 AM with the headline "Turnaround plans are a test for superintendent."