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Key Findings and Recommendations


During its seven-month review, TSPR examined Fort Worth ISD (FWISD) operations and heard from employees, school board members, teachers, students, parents, and community and business leaders. Following are the major proposals TSPR has developed to help the district address various issues:


Major Proposals

Lagging Test Scores, Particularly in the Middle Schools
  • Create an elementary to middle school transition plan. FWISD’s Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) scores are lower than Region 11 and the state. Additionally, the district does not sustain elementary-level student performance on TAAS at the middle and secondary levels. For example, the percentage of students passing all TAAS tests taken in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 is 7 to 12 percentage points lower than the percentage of students passing all TAAS tests taken in those same grades in the region and the state. The percentage of students passing all TAAS tests taken in grades 7, 8 and 10 is 15 to 25 percentage points lower than the region and the state. FWISD could improve student performance by creating a districtwide elementary to middle school plan to identify critical issues regarding an effective transition.

  • Increase the number of minorities and economically disadvantaged students taking advanced academic courses. FWISD’s percentage of minority and economically disadvantaged students completing advanced academic coursework or taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or the ACT Assessment college entrance exams remains lower than its peer districts, Region 11 and the state. FWISD should develop strategies to increase the number and percentage of minority and economically disadvantaged students taking advanced academic courses and college entrance exams.
High Dropout Rates
  • Involve district personnel and community leaders to reduce the students’ dropout rate.While FWISD has pursued programs and initiatives to eliminate its dropout problem, dropout rates remain unacceptably high for all student groups and exceed the state and peer districts. FWISD’s dropout rate increased in 1998-99 to 4.3 percent from 2.5 percent in 1997-98, while most peer districts and the state and regional rates remained relatively stable. The district should create an Office of Student Attendance and Dropout Initiatives to better coordinate its efforts, and create a Dropout Prevention/Reduction Task Force that includes community, business, education and civic organizations, to help it reduce the dropout rates.
Better Documented Procedures
  • Document and make emergency warning signals more consistent. Schools do not use consistent emergency alarm procedures to identify common types of alerts such as tornadoes, bomb threats, hostage and shooting threats. The lack of consistency in alarm procedures among the campuses could lead to confusion in a crisis situation. Additionally, students who switch schools during the year and students graduating to the next level may be unfamiliar with the alarm procedures at their new school. Creating and documenting consistent districtwide warning signals will assist students and staff to know what to do during a crisis situation.

  • Accurately track the technology hardware inventory. FWISD’s hardware inventory is inaccurate. Of 78 inventoried items tested, 48, or 61 percent, could not be identified by location, description or functionality. Without an accurate inventory, the district cannot identify missing or stolen items, locate those items or determine whether the items are usable. By conducting an annual physical count of hardware, the district can maintain an accurate inventory and be more accountable for taxpayers’ assets.

  • Streamline and realign the district’s travel operations. The district’s travel reimbursement and processing operations are ineffectively placed within the Purchasing Department, and the district uses a cumbersome travel request form to document reimbursable expenses. The result has been multiple and duplicative reviews of the forms by Purchasing and Accounting staff. Moreover, unprocessed forms are frequently returned to users because of errors. By realigning travel operations within the Accounting Department and by providing clear instructions for completing and processing the form, the district could reduce inefficiency in the system.

  • Follow existing staffing formulas. FWISD does not consistently follow its own documented staffing formulas. Consequently, the district has approximately 95 more employees, at various levels, than are needed according to its owns standard. By eliminating these positions through attrition, the district could save nearly $3 million annually.
A Need for Comprehensive Planning
  • Use transportation routing and scheduling software. While FWISD implemented new routing software for regular education routes for the start of the 2000-01 school year, the district did not adequately plan for the transition of information and data from the former system. Consequently, the district is not using the new system to identify regular routing and scheduling problems and solutions. The district also has not implemented the new system for special education routing and scheduling. By using the routing and scheduling software to plan and analyze regular and special education routes, FWISD could increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations and save nearly $4.3 million over five years.

  • Develop a districtwide safety and security plan. The district does not have a comprehensive long-range safety and security planning process to provide a strategic direction for its Student Affairs Department, administrators, teachers, staff and Fort Worth police officers. The district developed its only safety and security related long-range plan in 1995 and used it to seek funding from the Fort Worth Crime Control and Prevention District (CCPD). No other long range-planning document exists to guide the district through the next five years. With a formal safety and security plan, the district will be able to avoid disagreements with its partnering organizations, identify gaps in service and more effectively use its resources.

  • Develop a facilities master plan and contract oversight procedures. The district does not have a comprehensive long-range facilities master plan. Consequently, the district cannot plan beyond the scope of the present bond or look at strategies other than new facilities or modernizations. A long-range facilities plan can address these problems.

  • Start planning sooner and include more non-instructional areas in districtwide plans. Although FWISD has district and campus level plans, its planning comes too late in the process to tie decisions to the budget. Non-instructional areas of district operations are not sufficiently addressed in any districtwide plan; and there are few ways for the district to monitor its progress toward goals in non-instructional areas. By changing the planning timeline so that most formal planning occurs before the budget is adopted and incorporating non-instructional functions into the planning process, the district will be better positioned to monitor progress toward goals and more directly link spending to district priorities.

  • Realign the district organization by function. The district’s organizational structure is not logically aligned or grouped, which hampers the district’s ability to effectively plan, budget and measure performance. By realigning the organization, FWISD could place related functions together at the department level, which would improve the district’s planning efforts.
Successful implementation and integration of technology
  • Increase technology support. FWISD does not have adequate resources dedicated to technology support. With only one support person for every 608 computers, the district falls far below the industry standards of between 1-to-100 and 1-to-200. By hiring new staff, the district will be able to provide better service to its customers and solve technology malfunctions more quickly. The five-year cost will be $1.2 million.

  • Update the Technology Plan. The district’s technology plan for 1998-2003 has not been updated in two years and does not guide technology decisions. During the recent purchase of a new version of CIMS administrative software, the district did not address some key issues, such as the system’s ability to automatically calculate annual salaries based on daily rates and the number of contract days. By updating its technology plan and adopting a clear and comprehensive acquisition process that addresses functionality, cost, training, conversion and implementation of new software, the district could avoid risky practices and coordinate technology needs throughout the district.