Will Fort Worth schools see a Houston ISD-style state takeover? Here’s what the law says

In Reality Check stories, Star-Telegram journalists dig deeper into questions over facts, consequences and accountability. Read more. Story idea? RealityCheck@star-telegram.com.

When Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker called for a turnaround in the Fort Worth Independent School District this week, she pointed to the state takeover of Texas’ largest school district as an example of what can happen if academic performance doesn’t improve.

The Houston Independent School District is in the second year of a state takeover. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath placed the district under a board of managers, replacing the superintendent and elected school board with appointees.

But it’s hard to say exactly how likely a Houston ISD-style state takeover is in Fort Worth.

Fort Worth mayor calls for school turnaround

In a letter to members of the district’s school board ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Parker said the decade-long lack of improvement in Fort Worth ISD’s state test scores was “unacceptable. ” During the public comment portion of the meeting, the mayor called for a “bold, unified approach to turn our schools around and become the district of choice for our families.”

In her letter, Parker pointed to Dallas and Houston ISDs as examples of districts that managed to turn lackluster academic performance around. Dallas ISD did so through focused leadership in its central office with the full support of its school board, she said, while Houston ISD saw academic gains after a state takeover. Given the choice between the two, Parker said she’d prefer to see Fort Worth solve the problem itself without the need for state intervention.

Passed in 2015, House Bill 1842 requires the state education commissioner to do one of two things when schools have five consecutive years of unacceptable ratings: either close the campus or take over the district, replacing its elected school board with an appointed board of managers made up of district residents. The commissioner may also replace the superintendent as a part of that process, but isn’t required to do so.

The takeover in Houston ISD was prompted mainly by poor performance at Phillis Wheatley High School, which received a fifth consecutive failure rating in 2019. But a court injunction blocked TEA from taking action until 2023. By that point, Wheatley’s accountability rating had improved, but TEA officials said state law still required the agency to intervene.

No campus in Fort Worth ISD has had five consecutive years of unacceptable ratings, according to TEA records released last September. Only one campus in the district — the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade Center — had four consecutive years of unacceptable ratings. Last March, the district’s school board voted to close the sixth grade center and consolidate it with the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Middle School at the beginning of the current school year. No schools in the district were listed as having three consecutive years of unacceptable ratings.

A-F ratings pause complicates takeover question

But the question of how many years a campus has received a failure rating is more complicated than it might seem at first. That’s because TEA officials haven’t released D or F ratings since 2019. In 2020 and 2021, as districts were in the throes of COVID shutdowns, the state didn’t release district or campus ratings. In 2022, with schools still dealing with the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, lawmakers directed the agency to only give A-C ratings, so any district or campus that fell below a C didn’t receive a letter grade. Courts blocked the agency from releasing A-F scores for 2023 and 2024.

Those five years without failure ratings don’t count against school districts, but they also don’t represent a reset. And although the agency can’t take action against districts or campuses based on the 2023 and 2024 ratings that were blocked by court orders, those ratings still exist. So if a higher court were to allow TEA to release ratings for those years, any campus that already had two consecutive years of failure ratings — a group that includes Leonard and Jacquet middle schools in Fort Worth ISD — could have as many as four consecutive F scores.

Once TEA takes over a school district, its appointed board of managers stays in place for two years. At the end of that period, the state education commissioner can either decide to begin phasing an elected school board back in or extend the state-appointed board for another two years.

In Houston ISD’s case, state education officials have said they will end the takeover when the district has no campuses that received failure ratings in consecutive years, it’s in compliance with state and federal special education laws and it improves board governance. Morath has until June to determine if the district has met those conditions, or if the takeover will be extended another two years.