The Fort Worth Independent School District's new interim superintendent is laying out her plan to boost student performance.
At Tuesday night's board meeting, Karen Molinar presented her first report in her new role.
“So, what’s important to me is transparency. And if we’re transparent about our data, then we have to address that data,” she said.
Fort Worth ISD has been plagued with concerns throughout the district for some time now. Chief among them is academic performance. She said solutions are already underway.
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“We’ll have a principal committee group formed. I’ve already asked teachers to submit. And more importantly, our parents and students need to be involved,” Molinar said.
Molinar got to work after being appointed to the role early this month. The presentation, dubbed Priority One, aimed at improving student achievement and closing academic achievement gaps.
The numbers show Fort Worth ISD students in Grades 3-8 are largely underperforming in reading and math, with 42% not meeting reading grade-level expectations and 48% not meeting grade-level expectations in math.
Molinar said the next steps include progress management and more support for teachers during the instruction block of class time. She also emphasized data-led solutions.
“We’ll be working through where we deploy our central administration support staff, and there will be a set caseload,” she said. “This is not going to be sporadic interventions. They will be assigned students. We will be monitoring the growth of students through our data.”
Molinar pointed out that the district is required by law to provide interventions for students falling behind.
Her presentation follows a one-on-one interview with NBC 5 last week, in which she acknowledged what she called a breakdown in trust and partnerships that the district had in the past.
