The metal step stool clanked as Fort Worth ISD third grader Adrian Forsythe’s mother placed it in front of the podium.
Adrian stepped up and placed his wide-ruled notebook in front of him. He fiddled with the microphone before making a request to FWISD’s Texas-appointed board of managers.
He asked for an extra minute to speak. Just one. Because he’s dyslexic and has a speech impairment. He inhaled deeply and began reading.
“One day I’ll be the president,” Adrian began.
During a Sept. 8 board of managers meeting, Adrian was one of nine students who pushed back against changes FWISD introduced following the state takeover.
They traded their evening for three minutes at the microphone, even if it meant waiting until 9:25 on a school night to begin speaking.
“Sorry we made you stay up late,” board President Pete Geren said, promising students will speak first at future meetings.
‘What’s the point?’
Last school year was fun, fifth grader Charlotte Lingle told managers. She played learning games. She moved around the classroom.
“I liked going to school every day,” she said.
Then the Texas education commissioner appointed the superintendent and a nine-member board of managers because state law required him to act after a school failed five years in a row. Now, Superintendent Peter Licata is charged with quickly turning around a 60,000-student district that has academically struggled for more than a decade.
“Change is hard,” Licata said. “Going back to the old ways, the old days are not good for everyone. As a matter of fact, it’s not good for about 60% of our kids who can’t read.”
The resulting changes made this school year noticeably different, Charlotte said. She must remain in her seat. Teachers read from slides. She only works with classmates right next to or in front of her.
Doing well earns her more work, she said. When she scores advanced on her daily assessment — which checks what students learned that day — she gets a packet she said she can never finish in time.
“It makes me frustrated and wondering, ‘What’s the point?’” Charlotte said.
‘It would be marked wrong’
Artificial intelligence-generated content has made its way into FWISD’s lessons.
Jordan Grimsely, a junior at Arlington Heights High School, has noticed it in her AP environmental science class.
In the first couple of weeks of school, Jordan flipped through a packet. She stopped on a habitat diagram. Animals were distorted, Jordan said. Plants, too. Some critters had tails as wide as their bodies. Large animals had rabbit ears. She turned to her classmate.
“We’ve got to be joking,” she said.
The following week, Jordan’s class focused on the water cycle. The lesson incorrectly stated plants release water back into the ocean. Her teacher stopped and corrected the lesson, she said: Transpiration releases vapor into the air.
“If I wrote that plants ‘transpired water back into our oceans’ for a free-response question on an AP test, it would be marked wrong,” Jordan said.
Louis Kushner, the superintendent’s chief of staff, told nearly 200 parents attending a forum at Arlington Heights High School that district leadership hears their concerns loud and clear.
Licata has acknowledged the AI-generated mistakes. However, the superintendent said during the listening session that teachers also can edit their lessons and some did so incorrectly. A committee of teachers is now reviewing lessons before distribution.
“ We also know that they’re human, and sometimes they may miss an error,” Kushner said Sept. 1 at Arlington Heights. “We are taking an extra precautionary step to ensure that we put teachers’ eyes on that curriculum.”
Students said the problem runs deeper than bad diagrams — it’s the instructional model that scripts what teachers say.
Eastern Hills High School sophomore Margarita Cordova wants challenging classes to return.
“Is the goal of scripted teaching to truly ensure everyone is succeeding, or are we sacrificing the individuality of our students and teachers to make everyone the same?” Margarita said.
‘Listen to people’
Managers leaned forward as Adrian spoke. He paused as he flipped pages in his notebook, giving himself a moment to find his place.
“Remember what I said at the beginning?” Adrian asked the board of managers. “One day I will be the president.”
“Remember,” he added, “that leaders are supposed to listen to people, including kids.”
He thanked the managers for listening. He hopped off the step stool and walked alongside his mom back to his seat.
Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.
Disclosure: FWISD manager Pete Geren leads the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Laurie George is a member of the Report’s reader advisory council. 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.
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