When Texas chose a company to roll out the state’s $1 billion private school voucher program, it passed over more established vendors in favor of a four-year-old tech startup that said it could do it for almost half the cost.   Now, Odyssey must execute on its promises to meet an aggressive timeline while avoiding missteps that have dogged other program launches.  The New York-based company has rapidly expanded in recent years, launching programs in eight states that subsidize students’ private education costs with taxpayer dollars.  view article

The North Texas district is the 11th since 2000 to be taken over by the state and the second largest after Houston ISD. view article

De Zavala Elementary parents see an opportunity through the state takeover of Fort Worth ISD: Possibly saving their school.  Teacher Scott Blanco-Davis and FWISD PTA Council President Lupe Lynch said they will continue pushing for better support for educators and increased parental engagement.   The United Educators Association’s Steven Poole, though, warned of a potential teacher exodus once the state fully assumes control.  Parents, FWISD staff and community members voiced hope and concerns Tuesday during the trustees’ first meeting since the Texas Education Agency launched a takeover of the 67,500-student district. The locally elected school board will soon lose its authority to the state. view article

Despite months of community protests, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced last week that it would begin the process of taking over Fort Worth Independent School District, Texas’ ninth largest school district with 68,000 students. The move marks the second-largest district to be taken over by the state, next to the highly controversial takeover of Houston ISD in 2023, and is part of an increasing trend of state intervention into locally controlled public education systems.   In a letter to district leaders, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said he planned to appoint a superintendent, a conservator, and a new board of managers, thereby deposing the currently elected school board, after the appeal process ends on October 30.  view article

Every family has unique priorities when identifying the best private schools in Houston, but regardless of what’s on your must-have list, your perfect match may be listed here. The Houston K-12 private schools on this list were voted the Houston Chronicle’s Best of the Best Private Schools, giving them locals’ stamp of approval. These impressive schools offer students features like small class sizes, personalized attention and college preparation curricula to ensure higher test scores and post-secondary success. Review each school to find the best match for your young scholar. view article

n a move that's been months in the making, the TEA and Mike Morath will make FWISD their own. view article

Both Republicans and Democrats have said STAAR sets students up for failure, raising questions about basing a state takeover on the test’s results.  The state takeover of the Fort Worth Independent School District is largely based on student performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness — a testing system that came under scrutiny this year and led state lawmakers to replace it over concerns that it set students up for failure. view article

The state takeover of the Fort Worth Independent School District is largely based on student performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness — a testing system that came under scrutiny this year and led state lawmakers to replace it over concerns that it set students up for failure. The widespread criticism of STAAR has prompted questions about the fairness of the takeover, including whether the state should replace an elected school board and a superintendent if the test driving the decision does not adequately capture student learning. view article

Austin ISD is moving forward with updates to its sweeping consolidation plan that could close 13 schools, including Maplewood Elementary, a 74-year-old campus with a long community legacy and the district’s only “A”-rated school among those proposed for closure. As trustees listened to some of the adjustments during a Wednesday night work session, Maplewood families gathered in a different kind of meeting, one filled with music and messages of unity. view article

Hundreds of people are planning to rally at Bryker Woods Elementary School in Austin against the school district's consolidation plan. view article

The Aspermont ISD Board of Trustees approved the second phase of its 2024 bond construction plan during last week’s meeting, authorizing a major renovation project that will upgrade the district’s gymnasium, locker rooms, restrooms, and several classroom areas. The $3.78 million contract was awarded to Henthorn Commercial Construction of Lubbock, with Gallagher Construction Services managin.. view article

The 2025 school year was déjà vu all over again – nice pay increases for many administrators and persistently low student outcomes. ACT college-readiness in English, Reading, Math, and Science set another low record, dropping from 32% in 2015 to just 17% in 2025.

Editors Note: We often post articles form organizations that are known for not supporting Public Ed. We post these for you to read because these are what your public is reading. The folks on your board or coming to your office and at TexasISD.com we think it is important to know and understand both sides of these issues to adequately debate and defend Public Ed.

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The Texas Education Agency is taking over the Fort Worth Independent School District — a district with more than 70,000 students — because a campus with just over 300 sixth graders repeatedly failed to meet state academic standards. While Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade ultimately set off the state’s ability to intervene, the threat of a state takeover has been looming over the district for nearly two decades — with the first dating back to 2008. The district has a history of struggling to bring students’ grades up across the city, especially at campuses in low-income neighborhoods with large Black and brown populations.   TEA Commissioner Mike Morath announced last week his decision to remove all decision-making power from elected Fort Worth ISD school board members. Soon, the state will replace them with a board of managers and a superintendent handpicked by Morath. The new set of appointed leaders will wield substantial power. They will preside over one of North Texas’ biggest school districts — around 135 campuses — and their responsibilities will range from deciding how to spend the district’s $1 billion budget to hiring the directors who will lead day-to-day operations such as bus transportation and campus maintenance.  view article

As the Texas Education Agency moves forward with its takeover of Fort Worth ISD, Superintendent Dr. Karen Molinar’s contract will be reviewed in closed-door meetings this week, and she’ll be required to reapply for her position as part of the process. view article

Houston ISD's T.H. Rogers School ranks as the No. 2 middle school in Texas, according to newly released ratings from U.S. News & World Report.  Ten HISD schools — including two K-8 campuses, four elementary schools and four middle schools — made the top 100 in Texas on the outlet's 2026 Best K-8 Schools list. T.H. Rogers, which serves gifted and talented students as well as students with multiple impairments, landed in the top 20 for its elementary and middle school programs.  T.H. Rogers trailed behind only Dallas ISD's William B. Travis Academy/Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted for the state's top middle school slot. Like Travis, T.H. Rogers hosts students within the district's Vanguard program for gifted and talented children. The campus also serves students in the district's program that prepares children with disabilities for independence. view article

Jessy Reyes didn’t go looking for the neighborhood charter school. Her daughter enjoyed sixth grade at the Austin school district’s Dobie Middle School, where she made friends, learned from her teachers and joined the school band. But in the spring, after hearing from administrators that Dobie could close, Reyes thought she had no other option. She found a charter school and enrolled her daughter there for seventh grade. view article

Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District parents packed a board meeting Monday night to push back against potential elementary school closures.  The district recently shared seven proposals with families, each involving closing one or two campuses. Schools named in the scenarios include Dove, Colleyville, Bear Creek, Bransford and Glen Hope.  Many parents said they felt blindsided. view article

As Fort Worth ISD prepares to possibly lose local control of its schools, Houston ISD is in its third year of state oversight. On Wednesday, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath sent a letter to the Fort Worth ISD board of trustees and Superintendent Karen Molinar informing them of his decision to appoint a board of managers, conservator and superintendent to lead the district. view article

Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath says he's ordering the appointment of a conservator and a board of managers to govern the Fort Worth ISD after the school board "failed the students" and didn't implement changes that improved their performance for several consecutive years. view article

After months of anticipation, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has officially announced a state takeover of Fort Worth ISD. “It’s been a long day,” Superintendent Dr. Karen Molinar said. “Focused. I think that’s the right word—really focused right now on making sure our students are kept at the forefront.” view article

Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles could give the district's top-performing high schools more freedom—a move that could mark a significant shift in how the district operates. The initiative, called Level 5 autonomy, targets high schools that have maintained an A rating for at least four years and demonstrated narrow achievement gaps on the STAAR exams. If approved, eligible schools could make more independent decisions about curriculum, staffing, calendars, and operations while remaining part of the HISD system. view article

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath is holding a news conference Thursday morning.  Texas Education Agency officials did not provide details about what Morath will discuss with reporters.  The Fort Worth Report will provide updates following the call.  In a Wednesday evening statement, FWISD officials said they were aware of a possible announcement about the district. view article

It's a similar story to what we've heard in Fort Worth—repeated years of failing at campuses requiring the state to take action. Hanging right on the wall of the library of Lucille Collins Middle School was a chart with clothespins. The pins each had the name of a student, and were clipped next to the words Masters, Meets, Approaches, or Did Not Meet, referring to scores on state tests of academic expectation. The majority of the clothespins were on 'Did Not Meet' in almost every category. view article

One person alone cannot turn around a struggling school district. It takes a team dedicated to change, and former Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa is on Lake Worth’s team now. Hinojosa retired from the state’s second-largest school district in 2022 and launched a consulting firm. He had two stints leading Dallas ISD. Cumulatively, he served for 13 years and is credited with helping Dallas make gains in academically and with accountability. view article

Houston Independent School District (HISD) will hold elections for three school board seats in the upcoming November election, even though the district remains under state control. Trustee positions for Districts 5, 6, and 7 will appear on the November 4 ballot for four-year terms. Districts 1 and 9 saw unopposed candidates, so their names will not appear on the ballot. view article

The Texas Education Agency commissioner says Lake Worth ISD has had chronic academic problems at several campuses, with one school earning a failing grade five years in a row. According to state law, the TEA commissioner must now take drastic action. view article

Frisco ISD’s Staley Middle School will be closed after the 2025-26 school year. District leaders discussed the campus closure during an Oct. 20 board meeting. The board of trustees moved to close the campus in a unanimous vote. “We simply have more students going out of our buildings than coming in,” trustee Sherrie Salas said. “We would prefer [Frisco ISD] be immune to campus closures, but that is not the case. The landscape of public education is changing.” view article

Beaumont ISD has approved new school improvement turnaround plans aimed at addressing failing or low-performing campuses. The plans include a needs assessment and student outcome goals. during the meeting some key focuses are on improving reading and math scores for second through fifth grades. The district aims for campuses to score at or above grade level on STAAR performance rates by the 2025-2026 school year. view article

Facing a nearly $20 million budget shortfall and a potential state takeover, the Austin Independent School District has proposed a plan to close several schools and redraw school zone boundaries districtwide, impacting thousands of students and their families. view article

Five local school districts need to implement “turnaround plans” and improve student outcomes at failing campuses to avoid further probing from the state. This comes after the Texas Education Agency released preliminary campus and district ratings for the 2024-25 school year, measuring how effective public schools are at teaching students. view article

The Texas Education Agency is refuting the Lubbock ISD trustee president's claims about a new policy when it comes to investigating educators — specifically the investigation into the district's superintendent for alleged misconduct.  On Tuesday, Lubbock Independent School District Board of Trustees President Ryan Curry stated in a letter to the LISD community and local media outlets that the TEA has "a new policy by which they 'flag' a certificate any time a complaint is filed, regardless of the nature of the complaint."  Original Reporting: Lubbock ISD responds as superintendent's teaching certificate under review by TEA  However, the TEA informed the Avalanche-Journal that "There is no new policy regarding investigatory flags" and "if the agency is simply reviewing a complaint, there is no flag." view article

The accountability measures are mandated by a new state law.  More university systems in Texas are initiating audits of classes and curricula in order to comply with a new state law. This follows Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and the University of Texas-Austin announcing that they were running similar audits.   “Texas Woman’s University System is in the process of establishing a review of academic courses and programs, in accordance with all applicable state and federal laws,” a spokesperson for the Denton-based system told Texas Scorecard on Wednesday.  It was widely reported that on September 29, Michael Williams, the chancellor of TWUS’ neighbor, the University of North Texas System, had ordered a streamlined review of academic curricula and programs, including syllabi, to meet all relevant executive orders, court rulings, and state and federal laws. UNT campuses have a January 1 deadline to comply. The UNT System did not respond to a request for comment. view article

The Texas education commissioner can take over a school district only if a campus fails in the state academic accountability ratings for five straight years.  However, public charter schools face closure after three years of either academic or financial failures.  A-F accountability ratings are determined by results on STAAR, the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness.   A takeover involves the commissioner replacing a school district’s elected trustees with a state-appointed board of managers and installing a new superintendent.  The largest takeover in Texas history was in Houston ISD. The commissioner is considering a takeover of Fort Worth and Lake Worth schools.  view article

A sports sociology textbook published by Texas A&M University promotes “critical race theory” and the LGBT agenda. Writers critique “whites” and promote the idea of using sports as a means of “transforming” society.  Texas Scorecard received a copy of the third edition of “Sociology of Sport and Physical Activity” (2019), published by Texas A&M’s Center for Sport Management Research and Education. George B. Cunningham and Marlene A. Dixon of Ohio State University edited it, and included contributions from writers from universities worldwide.  Writers Adam Cohen, of the University of Technology Sydney, and Jon Welty Peachey, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, explain in chapter 8 why these leftwing topics are included in a sports textbook. They explain “the use of sport as a vehicle or platform for transforming the social structure of a social group or society.” view article

Families across Austin mourned the potential closure of or changes to their neighborhood campus over the weekend after the Austin school district released a proposal Friday to shutter 13 campuses, revamp six others as non-zoned special program schools and dramatically redraw attendance boundaries across the entire district. If approved by trustees in November, the plan will significantly shift boundaries for thousands of students only six years after another emotional school closure process. Roughly one-quarter of all district students could be impacted under the sweeping proposal.   view article