FWISD Aims To Improve Elementary School Ratings
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - The test scores at many campuses in the Fort Worth Independent School District have improved over last year, but there is still progress to be made. That is certainly a big goal for the districts new superintendent.
More students in the FWISD graduated on time last year. District leaders are very proud of that fact. However, the Fort Worth ISD lags behind the state as a whole. When it comes to improvement, elementary schools are a particular concern, as only 79-percent of elementary schools achieved a 'Met Standard' rating from the Texas Education Agency in 2014. That compares to 93-percent and 96-percent for the Fort Worth ISD's high schools and middle schools, respectively.
In the last year, 12 schools moved off the Texas Education Agency's 'improvement required' list, but those were mostly secondary school. Meanwhile, nine schools, mostly elementary, were added to the list.
Here is a list of the schools that came off the Texas Education Agency's "Improvement Needed" -
- Dunbar High School
- Eastern Hills High School
- Polytechnic High School
- Success High School
- Wedgwood 6th Grade Center
- Handley Middle School
- Morningside Middle School
- Dunbar Middle School
- Leonard Middle School
- Glencrest 6th Grade Center
- Jean McClung Middle School
- Atwood McDonald Elementary School
Dr. Kent Scribner, the Fort Worth ISD's next superintendent, said that change must start with the district's youngest students. "I don't see that student achievement happens by itself," he said. "Low student achievement and the achievement gap is really better phrased as an opportunity gap."
At Diamond Hill Elementary School extra classrooms for preschoolers are expected to help. The new pre-K wing includes 24 new classrooms, and that number will grow in the future. Parent Lehi Uriostegui remembers a very different situation at the school. "Last year, they made a whole list where kids had to come and see if they were going to have enough room for everyone. But now it's good for everybody."
Soon-to-be name Superintendent Scribner wants to be focused on students in and out of the classroom. "We need to provide support services for students, need to provide early interventions, and then we also need to have high expectations for ourselves as adults, and also for students."
Scribner comes from Arizona, where he served as the superintendent of the state's largest high school district. But he also has years of leadership experience on the elementary school level as well.
There are nearly two-dozen FWISD schools that remain on the TEA "Improvement Needed" list -
- O.D. Wyatt High School
- Forest Oak Middle School
- Sunrise McMillian Elementary School
- Hazel Harvey Peace Elementary School
- De Zavala Elementary School
- S.S. Dillow Elementary School
- Eastern Hills Elementary School
- Christene C. Moss Elementary School
- Mitchell Boulevard Elementary School
- A.M. Pate Elementary School
- Clifford Davis Elementary School
- West Handley Elementary School
- International Newcomer Academy
- Como Elementary School
- Maude I Logan Elementary School
- John T. White Elementary School
- Harlean Beal Elementary School
- Maudrie M. Walton Elementary School
- Westcreek Elementary School
- T.A. Sims Elementary School
- I.M. Terrell High School
