{"id":458179,"date":"2026-10-06T17:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458179\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T17:12:11","slug":"fort-worth-isd-students-petition-against-scripted-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458179\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth ISD students petition against scripted lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students at Fort Worth ISD wrote an open letter<\/a> to Superintendent Peter Licata and district leadership this week, sharing their concerns about what they have experienced during the Texas Education Agency\u2019s takeover of the district \u2014 specifically critiquing scripted lesson plans.<\/p>\n

The official letter was sent to the Star-Telegram Tuesday, and a rough draft of the letter was published on change.org and has garnered more than 1,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation should be about exploration,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cWe want to go to school to connect with people, discover things, and learn. We want to feel inspired when we walk into a classroom. We can\u2019t now, because of the rigidity of the new lesson plans and rules makes it almost impossible to explore new ideas, and the dullness of slides and pointless tasks pushes students farther away from learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Fort Worth ISD spokesperson did not immediately respond to the Star-Telegram\u2019s request for comment on the students\u2019 letter.<\/p>\n

Licata and the state-appointed Board of Managers overhauled how instruction is delivered to students over the summer. The district developed the Cowtown 12 instructional model<\/a>, which is a scripted model through which all teachers are instructed to teach identically to each other.<\/p>\n

Higher-rated schools gained more autonomy<\/a> to teach in different ways, while lower-rated schools are required to strictly follow the model, with little tolerance for going off script, school officials have said. But several parents and teachers at schools who have gained \u201cautonomy status\u201d who have spoken to the Star-Telegram in recent weeks and months still say they have been subject to strict scripted curriculum.<\/p>\n

Parents and district leaders have clashed over<\/a> the implementation of scripted curriculum for months. It was the top concern from attendees<\/a> during the district\u2019s series of community listening sessions, the district announced.<\/p>\n

Licata has pushed back on complaints over scripted lessons. He said most of the concerns have come from just a few campuses, but other board members did not agree with him during a special board workshop<\/a> on Sept. 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we are getting pretty damn good results,\u201d Licata said during the board workshop when defending scripted lessons.<\/p>\n

In their letter to Licata and district leaders, students pointed out errors with scripted slides and learning guides, feeling like their teachers weren\u2019t actually teaching them, feeling pressured to memorize instead of learn, and classrooms having too many rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe slides are often wrong,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cSometimes the learning guides and the slides don\u2019t even match. In social studies, we see spelling errors and mistakes all the time. In Spanish, there are translation errors. In French, one student saw what appeared to be an AI-generated image in the slideshow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scripted lessons and slides reviewed by the Star-Telegram included several uses of AI-generated material. Some of those had major errors, like a hand with six fingers and clocks with numbers in the wrong places, both of which were approved lesson plans for elementary classrooms.<\/p>\n

The letter has been signed by students as young as second grade and as old as 12th grade, according to its signature list.<\/p>\n

Students met in person several times over the last few weeks to draft the letter. They met after school hours and on weekends to write it, a parent told the Star-Telegram. Students got the idea to write an open letter after asking Fort Worth City Councilmember Elizabeth Beck what they could do to make a difference. She recommended writing an open letter.<\/p>\n

The letter lists \u201cdecision makers\u201d who students hope see the letter and spark change as: Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, Texas Sen. Taylor Rehmet, Board of Managers Chair Pete Geren, Licata and all members of Fort Worth ISD\u2019s state-appointed Board of Managers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Fort Worth ISD high school senior, I have in real time seen all the points this petition brings up,\u201d wrote a student who commented on the letter. \u201cIn all my years of being in school I have never seen a group of teachers more beat down than this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students also mention in the letter their frustration over the lack of novels used in English and reading curriculum, something dozens of parents have told district leaders at board meetings in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best parts about school has always been engaging with material that sparks curiosity,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cDumbing down the lessons we are taught doesn\u2019t bring us to grade level. Education must be an exploration, but right now it feels like memorization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter also says students in English classes in the district are currently reading \u201cDon Quixote,\u201d a common novel used in high-school English courses across the country. Instead of reading the book front to back, students are instructed to read portions of the book and complete worksheets on those portions, the letter states.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll read three chapters, skip the next chapters, then continue,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cYou read the summary instead of the book, then analyze the summary instead of the actual content. You could finish a book cover to cover and only read half the chapters in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Fort Worth ISD Board of Managers chair Pete Geren is the president and chief executive officer of the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, which is a funder of the Star-Telegram\u2019s Crossroads Lab. The Star-Telegram retains independence in all coverage decisions.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published October 6, 2026 at 10:03 AM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Samuel O\u2019Neal<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Samuel O\u2019Neal is the K-12 Education Reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, covering public schools and policy that impacts them. He previously worked as a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a graduate of Temple University.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students at Fort Worth ISD wrote an open letter to Superintendent Peter Licata and district leadership this week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-458179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}