Last week, the Fort Worth Independent School District’s board voted down a plan that would have set academic goals and priorities for the next five years.
Now, with the first day of school just weeks away , it seems likely that the district will start the year without a plan that outlines a coherent strategy for how schools function. But just how big a deal is that?
“I would characterize it as a medium deal,” said Sarah Woulfin, a professor of education leadership and policy in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin.
Future of Fort Worth ISD’s strategic plan is unclear
District officials walked through an overview of the plan at a meeting Tuesday , marking the first time details of the proposal had been presented publicly. Board President Camille Rodriguez pressed for a vote, saying it was vital that the board adopt the plan before the first day of school on Aug. 13 . But in the end, the board rejected the plan by a 5-2 vote. Board members Kevin Lynch and Anne Darr were absent from the meeting.
Some members who voted against the plan said they wanted to give the public a chance to look over the proposal and offer feedback before the board voted on it. At the end of the meeting, Rodriguez expressed frustration that the board couldn’t pass the plan. She noted that board members had been working on the plan for eight months. Anyone who had misgivings about the proposal should have spoken up months before the vote, she said.
“The inaction of this board continues to hinder our students’ achievement,” Rodriguez said.
It’s unclear what happens next with the strategic plan. Rodriguez told the Star-Telegram on Friday that she hadn’t yet discussed plans with the rest of the board. Board members may give Superintendent Angélica Ramsey direction on how to proceed at an upcoming meeting, she said, but the issue isn’t yet on any board agenda.
The question of whether and when the plan will show up on a future meeting agenda, and what form it will take if it does, is also up to the board, Rodriguez said. Even if the district is left without a strategic plan for some amount of time, Rodriguez said she’s confident district leaders will move forward in a way that best serves students.
School districts use strategic plans to set priorities
School districts create multi-year strategic plans to set the overall vision and priorities for their schools. Those plans generally include academic goals and details about areas where district leaders plan to invest in hopes of reaching those goals. The proposal board members rejected last week called for professional development for teachers and an expanded system for identifying students who are struggling so that teachers can offer extra support before they fall too far behind.
District leaders hoped that plan could help improve test scores, which have been stagnant for years . Among other goals, the plan called for 50% of third-graders to score on grade level or better in both reading and math on the state test by 2029. This year, 29% of third-graders met grade level in math , and 33% did so in reading.
Woulfin, the UT professor, said the lack of a strategic plan could be a problem for a school district if it goes on for too long. It isn’t necessarily a dire emergency to start the school year without a plan in place, she said — teachers will continue to teach and students will continue to learn.
But the lack of a plan can leave teachers and principals rudderless, without guidance on how they should use their resources and where they should focus their efforts, Woulfin said. That leaves principals to decide for themselves what to prioritize, she said.
That can be a problematic situation, she said, because those principals may have to reverse course on their decisions later on. If a principal decides to make science instruction a top priority for the year, but the board eventually approves a plan that emphasizes literacy instruction, the principal has to shift focus in the middle of the year. In some cases, that shift could even mean asking teachers to switch subjects mid-year, she said, which isn’t good for teachers or students.
The longer the board takes to approve a plan, the more disruption it’s likely to cause, Woulfin said. If the board approves a plan by Sept. 1, it most likely won’t cause too many problems, she said. But if it takes longer, it could be more of an issue.
There’s a great deal of setup work that goes on in schools in August and September to lay the groundwork for the rest of the year, Woulfin said. If the board approves a new strategic plan in October, and it doesn’t get widely communicated to principals and teachers until November, all that work is already done, she said. At that point, it becomes much harder for teachers to switch gears.
But Woulfin said it isn’t absolutely necessary that school leaders roll out a new five-year plan right away. Strategic plans are long-term documents that are designed to be implemented over the course of several years. So if a board approves a new plan in October, there’s generally no expectation that it will be fully implemented by December.
“You’re taking certain baby steps each day and each year to work your way towards the goals that are at the end of the five-year strategic plan,” she said.
FWISD board members call for more public input
During last week’s meeting, board member Roxanne Martinez, who voted against the proposal, said she didn’t think parents got enough of a chance to weigh in on the plan before it came before the board. The district held community forums and focus groups and placed a survey on its website. But Martinez, who has kids enrolled in the district, said she never got a text message about the survey, a regular avenue of communication for the district. She noted that many parents are less engaged with their kids’ schools during the summer and aren’t likely to check the district website.
Board member Tobi Jackson, who also voted against the plan, said she wasn’t opposed to any of the details of the proposal. But she wanted to see the board give the plan a first reading, then give parents a month to weigh in before the board voted. The plan is a long-term strategy that will take many students through their elementary school years, she said, so it’s important to make sure as many people as possible have a chance to see it before it’s implemented.
Jackson also noted that it’s possible that none of the board’s current members will be in office by the time the plan expires. That fact makes it all the more important to have all nine board members present for the vote, she said. A unanimous vote with all board members present would send a message to a future board that the plan had strong support from the board, she said.
Education advocate wants more specifics in plan
Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, director of the advocacy group Parent Shield Fort Worth, said she was happy to see the board vote the proposal down. Parents didn’t get enough of a chance to give feedback on the plan before it went before the board, she said. Dorsey-Hollins attended several community meetings where district leaders discussed ideas for the plan, and while a few parents attended, most of the people in attendance were district staff, she said.
Dorsey-Hollins also noted that the plan was never presented publicly until last week’s meeting, when the board voted on the proposal. The public comment section at Tuesday’s meeting took place before the presentation on the strategic plan, meaning even those who’d signed up to speak at the meeting had no chance to see the proposal and give feedback before it went up for a vote.
Aside from the way the plan was presented to the public, Dorsey-Hollins said she was also unimpressed by what was in the proposal. She wants to see more detailed information about how district leaders plan to reach the goals laid out in the plan — “not just the summary of what’s going to happen, but specifically, how are they going to increase early childhood literacy? What does that look like? How will that be tracked?”
She also doesn’t think the district’s goals are ambitious enough. In addition to calling for 50% of third-graders to be on grade level in reading and math by 2029, the plan called for half of all students in grades 6-8 to meet or exceed grade level in reading and math by 2029. Dorsey-Hollins acknowledged that progress in the district has been slow, but said leaders need to move faster. By 2029, her daughter, a kindergartener, will be nearing the end of elementary school. Students can’t wait that long for better instruction, she said.
The Fort Worth school board’s next meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 8.
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