Nearly half of Fort Worth high schoolers from low-income families must be ready for college, a career or the military when they graduate by 2030 under new draft goals for the city’s largest school district.
That’s more than double where FWISD is now. District leaders want to raise the percentage of low-income graduates deemed college, career and military ready from 19% to 47% over the next five years.
“This is one that people will look at and say we are crazy,” Superintendent Karen Molinar said at a recent board meeting. “But this has to be done to make sure they can graduate and they’re ready to go out into the workforce.”
FWISD trustees are considering applying five new goals to measure the district’s academic progress and to evaluate Molinar. The updated goals would mirror the district’s four-year strategic plan adopted in January.
Other proposed goals
FWISD trustees are considering new goals for measuring the district’s progress and evaluating Superintendent Karen Molinar.
The other four goals by 2030 are:
Increase the percentage of freshmen meeting grade level on the Algebra I STAAR from 27% to 46%.
Increase the percentage of third graders meeting grade level on the reading STAAR from 38% to 53%.
Increase the percentage of third graders meeting grade level on the math STAAR from 35% to 50%.
Increase the percentage of freshmen meeting grade level on the English I STAAR from 40% to 50%.
The Texas Education Agency determines the college, career and military readiness rate based on the number of students who score at the college level on the Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or other tests; who take college courses in high school; and other metrics.
Fort Worth ISD’s goal is narrower than the state’s definition.
Trustee Kevin Lynch wanted a better understanding of how the goal was set.
FWISD wants rigorous and aggressive goals so the district can compete with other school systems and receive additional funding, Molinar explained to the board.
The state provides districts with $5,000 per graduating senior who meets college, career and military readiness standards and comes from a low-income family. FWISD must have at least 11% of low-income students considered college, career or military ready to access the bonus.
The district met the state’s threshold to receive $470,000, according to 2024 graduate data from the Commit Partnership. FWISD could have received more than $16 million, only available if all low-income graduates met the bonus criteria, according to the nonprofit. A state-set formula determines how much districts can earn for their bonuses.
Trustee Quinton Phillips said the goal seemed confusing because the data previously presented to the board appeared to show the district doing well.
Molinar said that impression was misleading because a previous superintendent’s edict focused on students passing the Texas Success Initiative test, an exam measuring whether students are ready for entry-level college coursework in English and math.
However, not every student took the test because staff on campuses made that decision for them, she said.
“We had some who believed our students would be able to pass them and that they would not actually be interested in pursuing it afterwards,” Molinar said. “It was not being monitored or enforced. Now it is.”
The test is one of three measurements the district plans to watch progress. The other two are:
Completing a program of study and earning industry-based certification.
Completing three or more college applications.
Phillips pushed back on the college application piece. He did not want students to fill out applications to hit a quota just for them to get rejected across the board, he said. The trustee wants to track the college admissions instead.
Measuring college applications is one that other large, urban districts track as well since admissions data lags, Molinar said.
Deputy Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury acknowledged the goal is aggressive but doable.
“Five years to get there is a stretch goal. Stretch means we can make it happen,” he said. “It’s not an impossible goal.”
Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.
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