Parents and community members are frustrated after learning Fort Worth ISD will require teachers at schools in its Elevate Network to install live web cameras in third, fourth and fifth grade classrooms that will provide “live instructional feeds.”
District leadership instructed Elevate teachers to set up the web cameras with Zoom links this week, but multiple sources confirmed to the Star-Telegram that families did not get advanced notice of web cameras being set up.
A district spokesperson told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday that web cameras in classrooms have been included as part of the instructional technology expectations at Elevate campuses since the program’s inception, and the district is preparing to clear up confusion about the purpose of the cameras in an emailed statement to parents at some point on Wednesday.
“The purpose of the web cameras is instructional continuity,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Star-Telegram. “The web cameras are intended to provide a live instructional feed when circumstances require a student to access high-quality instruction from a location other than the student’s assigned classroom. The web cameras are not recording the classroom instruction.”
The spokesperson also said that web cameras should not be mistaken with security cameras, which are located in hallways, common areas and other spaces in campuses for safety purposes.
In a news release Wednesday, Families Organized and Responding to Takeover, an education advocacy group in Fort Worth, wrote that families are partners in their child’s education and deserve to have all the information on what is happening in their child’s classroom.
“FWISD teachers and principals at Elevate campuses have said they were instructed to set up web cameras to livestream their classroom,” the release reads. “Once again, a significant new procedure has been implemented in our children’s classrooms with no communication to families.
“At a bare minimum, FWISD families and staff have the right to know the purpose of the new web camera policy, the entire scope of when and how web cameras will be used in classrooms, and the safeguards and protections being put in place to ensure the safety of children at all times.”
A district spokesperson said the live streams will be used for two main reasons: when a teacher is absent, so students can remain supervised by another teacher who is teaching the same content; and if a student is temporarily removed from a classroom.
An email sent by an Elevate principal to teachers this week obtained by the Star-Telegram said that teachers will have their own Zoom links, and Zoom sessions will be shown through classroom projectors.
The email also says teachers will log into the Zoom daily during their instructional blocks and display the classroom instruction through the projector. Teachers will also be required to share the Zoom link with the school’s administrators.
“We have serious and legitimate concerns about safety, and about what safeguard procedures are being put in place regarding the use of web cameras in Fort Worth classrooms,” FORT wrote in a statement. “FWISD staff report that Zoom will be the web platform used, the same platform the district had to abandon during COVID after unauthorized individuals were able to access password-protected virtual classrooms.”
Fort Worth ISD’s Elevate Network, formed during the summer, is a collection of the district’s 24 most-struggling campuses. It was created to give those campuses additional resources, heavier scripted curriculum, higher teacher pay and a specialized instructional model that focuses on rapidly improving student outcomes.
The Elevate Network was one of the first changes made by Superintendent Peter Licata and the district’s Board of Managers after the Texas Education Agency took over Fort Worth ISD this year due to stagnant academic performance. TEA Commissioner Mike Morath named Licata superintendent and replaced the elected school board with a state appointed one in March.
Since the TEA takeover, parents and community members have clashed with state-appointed leaders about communication and transparency. Licata and the Board of Managers have called transparency one of their biggest priorities.
“Continuing to implement procedures without any notification to families and without full transparency only further erodes the trust between the district and families and staff,” FORT wrote in the release.