Eight hours into a Saturday workshop, Fort Worth ISD\u2019s Texas-appointed board members arrived at the question they had heard from parents for weeks<\/a>: Would they rein in scripted lessons?<\/p>\n The answer shapes the rules that the board of managers will use to hold Superintendent Peter Licata accountable. Managers are drafting superintendent guardrails and FWISD goals based on feedback from parents, students and other district residents. They will finalize the goals and limits at their Nov. 10 meeting.<\/p>\n The community comments led managers to draft a rule requiring the superintendent to seek teacher feedback on scripted lessons and other classroom changes.<\/p>\n Licata objected. He said the complaints came mostly from one of the district\u2019s high school feeder patterns. He pointed to indicators from a test administered early in the year as a sign his instructional overhaul is working.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now we\u2019re getting pretty damn good results,\u201d Licata said.<\/p>\n Manager Tennessee Walker said the complaints came from across the 60,000-student district. Directly from teachers. They all pointed to an ongoing failure: the loss of teacher trust.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not looking at just test scores in six weeks. We\u2019re looking at sustainable results,\u201d Walker said. \u201cIf teachers don\u2019t feel trusted, if we don\u2019t have teachers that will stick around, become master teachers and be here for decades to come, then it\u2019s short-term results for long-term failure.\u201d<\/p>\n Scripted lessons stayed at the top of the list when managers counted every feeder pattern equally, according to district documents.<\/p>\n Manager Jay Stegall said he sees the results Licata touted. However, a disconnect exists between what managers hear inside the District Service Center and what they hear from the community, he said.<\/p>\n Manager Laurie George cut through the disagreement: The board wants to respect teachers, she said.<\/p>\n Board President Pete Geren said teacher trust and respect was the No. 1 issue residents raised. Teachers told managers that the superintendent rolled out scripted lessons and other instructional changes without talking to them, Geren said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis says going forward, he won\u2019t do that without engaging the teachers,\u201d Geren said.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the board of managers stripped the scripted lessons from a proposed superintendent limit. However, the limit directs the superintendent to seek teacher feedback on significant lesson and instructional changes.<\/p>\n The scripted lessons discussion was one of several before managers drafted five goals and six superintendent limits.<\/p>\n What are the proposed superintendent limitations?<\/p>\n The superintendent shall not make significant changes to or retain curriculum or instructional practices without a process for teachers to regularly review and provide feedback and without broadly communicating the rationale and evidence of the effect on the adopted student outcome goals. \u2018No mission, no money\u2019<\/p>\n Licata asked the board of managers for a constraint: Do not operate FWISD in a fiscally unsound manner.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think this handcuffs me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The superintendent outlined the district\u2019s hurdles. Enrollment is declining<\/a>. Too many campuses<\/a>. A nearly $50 million shortfall.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the massive budget changes we\u2019ll be making about closing schools, selling land and all that, I just think it\u2019s important that that\u2019s in there,\u201d Licata said.<\/p>\n Secretary Rosa Maria Berdeja noted that fiscal responsibility was not an issue raised during the board\u2019s listening sessions nor in survey responses. She said she was wary of replacing a community-rooted guardrail with one raised by the superintendent, but supported adding it as a sixth.<\/p>\n Finances underlie everything in FWISD, Walker said.<\/p>\n \u201cNo mission, no money,\u201d Vice President Courtney Lewis said. \u201cWe can\u2019t accomplish anything if we are not fiscally sound.\u201d<\/p>\n What are the draft goals?<\/p>\n Student state assessment at the meets\/exceeds performance level at third grade will increase at a rate of 5 percentage points per year for reading. Representation gap<\/p>\n Norma Garcia-Lopez, whose nieces and nephews attend FWISD, immigrated to the United States as a child. Her Spanish-speaking parents struggled to navigate the school system.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI know what it means when somebody has to be the voice for their family,\u201d Garcia-Lopez told managers. \u201cAnd that is why I cannot sit quietly when I see communities potentially being left out of a process that\u2019s supposed to shape accountability for our superintendent.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcia-Lopez and other community members criticized the board\u2019s survey response collection for not being representative of student demographics.<\/p>\n Nearly half of 2,637 respondents who reported their race and ethnicity said they were white. FWISD\u2019s student enrollment is 12.6% white. Latinos are 65% of students.<\/p>\n The board\u2019s survey breakdown showed how the gap shaped the results. White respondents named scripted lessons as the top thing FWISD should stop doing. That\u2019s more than twice the rate of Latinos who most often pointed to cuts to lunch, recess and the arts.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, scripted lessons were in the top three concerns for white, Latino and Black respondents.<\/p>\n Stegall suggested the board of managers seek additional feedback from residents to address the survey disparity.\u00a0<\/p>\n The sheer amount of responses should give managers confidence that the goals and guardrails are in the ballpark of what the community wants, Geren said. The survey drew 972 Latino and 241 Black respondents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBefore the next meeting, I\u2019ll take responsibility of coming up with a plan and engaging a professional person to help us figure out how we reach all these groups that we haven\u2019t reached very well,\u201d Geren said.<\/p>\n Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org<\/a> or @_jacob_sanchez<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019s reader advisory council. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. 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\nThe superintendent will not proceed without a plan to recruit and retain high quality educators.
\nThe superintendent will not diminish access to advanced academic programs, school of choice opportunities, or opportunity for schools to obtain earned autonomy for children of all demographic and socioeconomic groups.
\nThe superintendent will not allow any campus to go without equitable access to qualified teachers, core materials, safe and functional facilities, transportation and advanced coursework opportunities.
\nThe superintendent will not allow discipline to be applied inconsistently across campuses or student groups.
\nThe superintendent will not operate the district in a fiscally unsound manner.<\/p>\n
\nStudent state assessment at the meets\/exceeds performance level at third grade will increase at a rate of 5 percentage points per year for math.
\nThe percentage of graduates meeting college, career and military readiness bonus criteria will increase from 19% to a target to be determined.
\nBy the end of the 2030-31 school year, the percentage of FWISD eighth-grade students meeting\/exceeding grade level on all tested subjects will exceed the state average by at least 5 percentage points.
\nFWISD students are capable of effective and efficient communication and being self-determined learners.<\/p>\n