The Texas Education Agency will remove Fort Worth ISD’s democratically-elected school board and its superintendent, instituting the second-largest state takeover in Texas history, Education Commissioner Mike Morath said Thursday.
Fort Worth ISD, which has about 67,500 students, faced the threat of a takeover for months after one of its campuses earned a failing rating for five consecutive years.
A takeover means Morath will remove the district’s nine-member board of trustees and appoint a board of managers. He will also name a new superintendent, who will replace Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Karen Molinar.
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Morath’s announcement makes Fort Worth ISD the second-largest district to undergo state intervention. The TEA took over control of Houston ISD, the state’s biggest district, in 2023.
Earlier this year, Molinar, who became the district’s permanent superintendent in March, acknowledged the district had much to improve on.
In recent months, Fort Worth ISD officials said its schools have improved in accountability ratings over the past year, a sign that their reforms, such as new reading and math frameworks, are paying off. Fifty of the district’s schools have moved up at least one letter grade, and the number of F rated schools has decreased from 31 to 11.
On Thursday, Morath described the district as demonstrating “a chronic inability to support students to learn and achieve at high levels,” according to his letter to Molinar and trustees. He said the “long-standing issue” predated COVID-19 disruptions.
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“Across all grades and subjects, only 34% of students in Fort Worth ISD are meeting grade level,” he wrote. “This is 16 percentage points below state average.”
State law requires the commissioner to either appoint a board of managers to govern a district or order the closure of a consistently failing campus.
Complicating matters is that district officials closed the failing campus, Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade, in 2023. The 2023 failing state rating that triggered the takeover was released only this year after lawsuits delayed the state’s A-F academic accountability grades for two years.
Morath said the closure of the campus had no impact on his decision to institute a state takeover.
In the months before his decision, Morath visited Fort Worth schools to evaluate curriculum rigor and how well the district supported its classroom teachers. In late August, he described the “level of student proficiency” in Fort Worth as “much lower” than similar districts.
After a visit to William James Middle School in August, where he observed students and teachers in an English and math class, Morath said he saw “highs and lows.”
“There are changes that have to be made, because otherwise we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place,” he said. “The goal is to make those changes quickly and then to reach some degree of stability so that we can just trend year in and year out.”
Opinions vary on whether state takeovers improve students’ academic performance. Some Fort Worth ISD parents have opposed the idea of a takeover for months, asking the state to give Molinar more time to implement changes.
After the state took over Houston ISD, Morath installed former Dallas ISD superintendent Mike Miles to lead the nearly 200,000-student district. Miles has had a controversial two years. Under his leadership, the district’s 121 D and F-rated schools dropped to 18 D-rated and zero F-rated campuses. But parents have pushed back against his leadership style and questioned some of his decisions, such as curriculum changes, according to The Houston Chronicle.
Morath has defended the efficacy of a state takeover.
“Every single one of our state interventions has resulted in fairly immediate improvements in the quality of student learning,” he said in August.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
