Mayor Mattie Parker laid out her case for why Fort Worth ISD needs a turnaround plan.
She used results from the state standardized test, called the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, from the Texas Education Agency and compared Fort Worth ISD’s performance to similar districts.
Regardless of how the data is sliced, the same trend is noticeable: Fort Worth ISD performs worse than other districts, including Dallas and Houston ISDs, the two districts that Parker pointed to as having seen significant growth in the past decade.
“We need to aspire for greatness,” Parker said during a news conference Aug. 27. “The trends are the important part. Over 10 years, there was a lack of progress. Look, I know the STAAR test is not perfect, but it is our state assessment.”
Superintendent Angélica Ramsey has led Fort Worth ISD since September 2022, when she was hired to boost academic achievement.
“We recognize that we are not where we want to be with student achievement, which is why the opportunity to lead FWISD is so important to me,” Ramsey said in an Aug. 28 statement. “This is the reason I came to FWISD — to realize the potential of every student and the district. I am committed to making FWISD an outstanding school district.”
The Report rounded up the data Parker used in her letter to the school board calling for trustees to step up and improve Fort Worth ISD. Here’s how the district stacks up in comparison to other districts, including Houston and Dallas.
Jacob Sanchez is a senior education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
