Eight Fort Worth ISD campuses will receive greater control over schedules, staffing, budgets and other day-to-day decisions under a newly introduced earned autonomy framework, while still following the district\u2019s new instructional model.<\/p>\n
FWISD leaders announced guidelines for schools to earn greater flexibility Monday evening, less than a week before students return to class. The rules are based on the state\u2019s A-F academic accountability system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schools qualified by earning an overall A rating and an A in student achievement, one of three rating measurements, for three consecutive years in the state\u2019s academic accountability rating system.<\/p>\n
The eight campuses being granted earned autonomy are:<\/p>\n
The district\u2019s announcement did not identify which three years counted toward the designation or spell out which requirements will no longer apply. The Texas Education Agency is expected to release new ratings Aug. 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese schools have established a consistent record of high levels of student achievement and instructional excellence,\u201d Superintendent Peter Licata wrote. \u201cAs a result, they have earned the opportunity to continue implementing the curriculum plans that have contributed to their success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Licata and Deputy Superintendent Daniel Soliz offered their clearest public explanation of the designation Tuesday evening during a town hall hosted by state Rep. Nicole Collier.<\/p>\n
FWISD does not plan to disrupt campuses that have demonstrated sustained success, Licata said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne year is an incident, second year maybe a pattern, three years a trend,\u201d Licata said. \u201cWhy would we change that? That\u2019s not going to be our focus. Our focus are the schools that are just struggling and haven\u2019t gotten the attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soliz said earned autonomy does not allow the eight campuses to select any instructional approach they want, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The campuses will receive greater control over their master schedules, staffing models, budgets and other daily operations, Soliz said. But they must continue delivering lessons under FWISD\u2019s definition of \u201chigh-quality instruction\u201d and will be evaluated using the same indicators as other schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow we define high-quality instruction and the indicators of which we rate high-quality instruction remain unchanged, even for those schools that have the highest levels of autonomy,\u201d Soliz said.<\/p>\n
Soliz described inconsistent instruction among campuses as one of FWISD\u2019s greatest barriers to districtwide improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe era of isolated excellence is over,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are defining what high-quality instruction looks like, and we are going to insist that that be implemented across all schools in Fort Worth ISD.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questions remain about the precise boundaries of the eight campuses\u2019 authority, including whether they may depart from district expectations involving lesson pacing, classroom observations and required instructional activities.<\/p>\n
Schools must maintain an overall A as well as an A in student achievement to retain the designation in future years, according to FWISD\u2019s email.<\/p>\n
Licata previewed that philosophy during a recent interview with the Fort Worth Report, describing an approach in which campuses receive greater latitude in lesson planning after producing strong results.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t have teacher autonomy and have bad results,\u201d Licata said. \u201cOnce schools get to that super high level, then we let them have that autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n
What that autonomy means in practice remains unclear. FWISD leaders said principals will provide more information to their school communities but did not list exemptions involving lesson planning, pacing, classroom observations, staffing or budgets.<\/p>\n
Megan Breedlove, a Spanish and French teacher entering her seventh year at W.P. McLean Middle School, said she learned about the framework through the same message sent to families.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were talking about the subject, but we didn\u2019t know that earned autonomy was a thing,\u201d Breedlove said.<\/p>\n
McLean teachers had been told to expect prescribed lessons and activities, restrictions on flexible seating and frequent classroom observations, Breedlove said. District leaders\u2019 town hall comments indicate the eight campuses will still follow the districtwide instructional model, but they did not explain whether every individual practice will apply equally at those schools.<\/p>\n
To teachers at schools that did not qualify, Breedlove said, the word \u201cearned\u201d sounds like a judgment about their ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hear that as: You can\u2019t do it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s got to be earned, and you\u2019re clearly not doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The eight campuses also operate under widely different conditions.<\/p>\n
Five are specialized secondary schools that students choose to attend. The other three are neighborhood elementary schools serving much smaller shares of low-income students than FWISD overall.<\/p>\n
About 6% of Overton Park students, 19.7% of Tanglewood students and 39.7% of Westpark students were low income in 2025, according to Texas Education Agency data. FWISD\u2019s districtwide rate was 83.1%.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The five specialized secondary schools ranged from 48.7% low income at I.M. Terrell to 80.3% at TCC South\/FWISD Collegiate.<\/p>\n
Board of Managers President Pete Geren said during the town hall that FWISD has \u201cislands of excellence\u201d among campuses serving both higher- and lower-income communities. He said the board\u2019s future academic goals will apply across the district regardless of students\u2019 neighborhoods or demographics.<\/p>\n
Toni Templeton, a University of Houston professor who studies school systems and state interventions, said those differences make school ratings an incomplete measure of whether instructional practices alone produced the results.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe premise is that the accountability system itself is a quality measure, is an equitable measure of performance,\u201d Templeton said. \u201cI do not think that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, she said she does not oppose treating campuses differently during a takeover. High-performing schools may not require the same intervention as chronically struggling campuses, she said, but student demographics, admissions structures and access to resources also shape their outcomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that the answer is lower the bar,\u201d Templeton said. \u201cI think that the answer is provide more support.\u201d<\/p>\n
TEA comparison data shows six of the eight newly autonomous campuses had a higher share of students meeting grade level than most of the 40 Texas schools considered most similar to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tanglewood outperformed all 40 comparison campuses, while Westpark surpassed 39 and Overton Park surpassed 36. I.M. Terrell and Young Women\u2019s Leadership Academy each outperformed 32, and TCC South Collegiate outperformed 29. Marine Creek Collegiate and the Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences ranked lower within their peer groups, outperforming seven and three campuses, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
TEA forms the groups using factors including grade levels served, enrollment, low-income families, student mobility, emergent bilingual and special education enrollment, and early-college participation.<\/p>\n
How Houston\u2019s earned-autonomy model works<\/p>\n
Fort Worth ISD leaders have not said whether its new framework will mirror Houston ISD\u2019s, but the districts use similar language tying campus freedom to sustained academic performance.<\/p>\n
Houston began tying schools\u2019 decision-making authority to academic performance in 2024. In July 2026, it replaced that system with a five-level earned autonomy framework.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schools at the three lowest levels remain subject to varying degrees of district control over lessons, schedules, classroom observations and instructional practices. Campuses qualify for greater flexibility by maintaining stronger accountability ratings over multiple years.<\/p>\n
At Levels 4 and 5, qualifying schools may seek formal performance agreements granting broader authority over:<\/p>\n
Those levels require sustained scores of at least 90, limits on achievement gaps and approval from Houston\u2019s board of managers. Schools that meet the academic criteria but do not enter a formal partnership remain at Level 3, where they still follow district evaluation systems, instructional strategies and classroom-observation requirements.<\/p>\n
Fort Worth leaders have so far announced only one category: eight campuses with three consecutive overall A ratings and three consecutive A ratings in student achievement. Unlike Houston\u2019s highest autonomy levels, FWISD\u2019s designation does not allow campuses to operate outside the district\u2019s instructional model.<\/p>\n
Leaders have not said whether FWISD will establish additional autonomy levels for B-rated or improving campuses or whether qualifying schools will enter formal performance agreements.<\/p>\n
Dionna Deardorff is a leader of the community advocacy group Families Organized and Resisting Takeover, or FORT, and is the incoming PTA president at I.M. Terrell. She called autonomy good news for the eight schools, but said FWISD released only a sliver of its framework.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many other A-rated and B-rated campuses that were not included in that list,\u201d Deardorff said. \u201cWhat is the plan for those campuses?\u201d<\/p>\n
She urged FWISD to publish the metrics and timeline other schools can use to earn greater flexibility and to consider academic growth, special education populations and emergent bilingual enrollment.<\/p>\n
Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, executive director of parent advocacy group Parent Shield Fort Worth, said families outside the eight campuses felt blindsided and still do not know what the designation changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf those schools are doing so great, then why are we not giving everybody that playbook?\u201d Dorsey-Hollins said. \u201cThey owe parents information. They owe the community information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Education editor Jacob Sanchez contributed reporting.<\/p>\n
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org<\/a> or @matthewsgroi1<\/a>.<\/p>\n Disclosure: FWISD manager Pete Geren leads the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Laurie George is a member of the Report\u2019s reader advisory council. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/04\/8-fort-worth-isd-schools-receive-more-flexibility-what-does-that-mean\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=710768&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/04\/8-fort-worth-isd-schools-receive-more-flexibility-what-does-that-mean\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Matthew Sgroi, Fort Worth Report August 4, 2026 Eight Fort Worth ISD campuses will receive greater control…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":981487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,14948,7372,60054,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-981486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-isd","tag-fortworth","tag-takeover","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/981487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}