29 replies to this topic

[Willy1]

I would love to see some information and statistics on the city's schools. I'd love to know how the elementary, middle, and high schools rank in terms of age, size, enrollment and beauty... I'd love to see some pics and also know some history of these institutions.... Anyone else interested in the FW schools?

[cjyoung]

I would love to see some information and statistics on the city's schools. I'd love to know how the elementary, middle, and high schools rank in terms of age, size, enrollment and beauty... I'd love to see some pics and also know some history of these institutions.... Anyone else interested in the FW schools?

As a product of Fort Worth schools I would like to see them excel, but the unfortunate thing is that they will continue to be bad with the exception of a few because all of the residential growth in the city limits is in the Keller, Crowley, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Northwest, and HEB ISDs.

[Buck]

The FWISD has a beautiful archive library where you can go check out the history.

Most of the schools are in the Historic Resources Survey.

[John T Roberts]

The City of Fort Worth commissioned a special survey just for Fort Worth schools. You can download as a very large pdf file here:

http://www.fortworth.....ort final.pdf

This was discussed on a thread about one year ago, for that reference, go to:

http://www.fortworth...c School Survey

[normanfd]

Another good source is the new website by Standard & Poor's:

http://www.schoolmatters.com/

[renamerusk]

The only thing standing in TCU's path to Stanley is Paschal.  If FWISD can get a new campus for Paschal that can also be incorporated into the TCU plan, then the TCU/TexRail Station would then be a "fait accompli" .

 

 vs

 

Right now, the campus is close to the geographic center of its attendance zone......  Building a new high school there would force many students or their parents to drive a long way.  This would also place the campus quite some distance away from being considered a neighborhood school....

 

Just a short while ago,  Fort Worth just unveiled the findings of its $300k Economic Development Plan commissioned to make the City more competitive to businesses and high wage jobs.  Among the the several needs identified was the schools' overall poor ratings in which the poor ratings were cited as a significant obstacle in attaining this goal were three recommendations -

 

EDP - Strategy - Incentives 1.1.5 :

1.  Work closely with Fort Worth ISD, TCC, Tarrant County, and other public sector entities in the community to identify  underutilized properties and position them for public-private redevelopment.

2. Fort Worth ISD is currently evaluating its portfolio of non-academic properties (including its headquarters office near the West Seventh Street district) for potential redevelopment partnership.

3. Work with the ISD to ensure that the economic development potential of these properties is prioritized

as part of any sale or redevelopment plans.

 

These are economic strategies, yet they are strategies that will bring more resources to the ISD overall and benefit all students district wide.

 

The "neighborhood school model" should be up for debate beyond grade 8.

 

The ISD could consider developing special campuses that would be open to all students within the district based upon their pursuit of learning and such campuses above the 8th grade would have special offerings and courses that will attract new residents to the City in pursuit of this specialized learning.  You may wonder who is embarking on this strategy; the answer is Dallas ISD.  DISD states that it is a direct strategy to get people to return to its district.

 

Now to Paschal. There isn't a need to close the campus.  PHS is an ideal candidate to partner with TCU by integrating itself and its courses with that of the TCU DOE.   Already, the STEM Academy is adopting the district wide acceptance of students pursuing its courses.

 

Other changes could be debated, such as year round school which is a debate for another time.

[hannerhan]

Not exactly on topic, but to anyone paying close attention to FWISD there has been a clear change in the past 15 years when it comes to the quality of students at Paschal. 

 

Tanglewood has always been a great elementary school, but in the past it was very common for Tanglewood kids to move to private schools in order to avoid McLean/Paschal in later years.  This practice seems to be going away.

 

One can look at housing pricing in Tanglewood and quickly realize that it's becoming the Park Cities of Fort Worth when it comes to schools.  And when you factor in the statistic that private school tuition rates have been increasing by almost 8% annually, most families with multiple kids really just can't afford them. 

 

McLean's 500 kids per class are now split into 3 basic groups: top 10% are "accelerated", 10-50% are "honors", and bottom 50% are in standard classes.  That top 50% group, which is large at about 250 kids per class, are all pretty high achievers.  That is a big number for Fort Worth.

 

Overall Paschal's scores don't look impressive, but I think the top 50%, on a student-for-student basis, would compete well academically with Carroll and Colleyville.  Fort Worth needs to do a better job of touting this, though it can be politically sensitive.  But long-term the future is very bright in that zone.  Hopefully it's the beginning of an inner city renaissance in the school district.  Lots of green shoots... 

[Doohickie]

Not exactly on topic, but to anyone paying close attention to FWISD there has been a clear change in the past 15 years when it comes to the quality of students at Paschal. 

 

Tanglewood has always been a great elementary school, but in the past it was very common for Tanglewood kids to move to private schools in order to avoid McLean/Paschal in later years.  This practice seems to be going away.

 

One can look at housing pricing in Tanglewood and quickly realize that it's becoming the Park Cities of Fort Worth when it comes to schools.  And when you factor in the statistic that private school tuition rates have been increasing by almost 8% annually, most families with multiple kids really just can't afford them. 

 

McLean's 500 kids per class are now split into 3 basic groups: top 10% are "accelerated", 10-50% are "honors", and bottom 50% are in standard classes.  That top 50% group, which is large at about 250 kids per class, are all pretty high achievers.  That is a big number for Fort Worth.

 

Overall Paschal's scores don't look impressive, but I think the top 50%, on a student-for-student basis, would compete well academically with Carroll and Colleyville.  Fort Worth needs to do a better job of touting this, though it can be politically sensitive.  But long-term the future is very bright in that zone.  Hopefully it's the beginning of an inner city renaissance in the school district.  Lots of green shoots... 

 

Fort Worth needs to do a better job of replicating this at all their schools and not having a school of "haves" in a district of "have nots".

[renamerusk]

The days of neighborhood schools, though quaint, are not what students and parents will need to compete in the economies of the future.

 

A radical reinvention of the public schools might entail the creation of academies fed into by students from throughout the district. Imagine a district functioning like a university system.  Beyond grammar school (1-8) students would attend an academy that specialized in a field of learning that prepares them for continuing on to higher education.  There might be an academy for students interested in the medical field that specialized in biology, chemistry, etc.; or an academy for students interested in the legal and public administration field that specialized in civics, constitutional studies, etc.  There could be a technical academy for engineering, architecture, etc.

 

Additional radical change might be the school calendar.  Grammar School (1-8) would be year round;  the Academy (9-12) would continue to have summer break which would be the period of interning and on the job training.

 

Getting such a reinvention of the public schools will require a lot of politicking, but the status quo seems to be giving us a less than satisfactory result or return upon the public's investment into public education.

 

The green shoots are very encouraging; as well as the acknowledgement that our schools must do better.

[elpingüino]

The days of neighborhood schools, though quaint, are not what students and parents will need to compete in the economies of the future.
 
A radical reinvention of the public schools might entail the creation of academies fed into by students from throughout the district. Imagine a district functioning like a university system.  Beyond grammar school (1-8) students would attend an academy that specialized in a field of learning that prepares them for continuing on to higher education.  There might be an academy for students interested in the medical field that specialized in biology, chemistry, etc.; or an academy for students interested in the legal and public administration field that specialized in civics, constitutional studies, etc.  There could be a technical academy for engineering, architecture, etc.
 

The good news is that much of this is already happening. I have friends in Wedgwood (Southwest HS attendance zone) whose kids went to Paschal to attend specialized programs. Another in Ridglea (Arlington Heights zone) who went to Dunbar for the same reason. In fact, I wonder what percentage of Paschal student body actually lives in Tanglewood.

As far as the academy model goes, I don't have a link on hand, but I encourage anyone to search for FWISD Gold Seal Schools of Choice and you can see the great progress that's already underway.

[hannerhan]

 

The days of neighborhood schools, though quaint, are not what students and parents will need to compete in the economies of the future.
 
A radical reinvention of the public schools might entail the creation of academies fed into by students from throughout the district. Imagine a district functioning like a university system.  Beyond grammar school (1-8) students would attend an academy that specialized in a field of learning that prepares them for continuing on to higher education.  There might be an academy for students interested in the medical field that specialized in biology, chemistry, etc.; or an academy for students interested in the legal and public administration field that specialized in civics, constitutional studies, etc.  There could be a technical academy for engineering, architecture, etc.
 

The good news is that much of this is already happening. I have friends in Wedgwood (Southwest HS attendance zone) whose kids went to Paschal to attend specialized programs. Another in Ridglea (Arlington Heights zone) who went to Dunbar for the same reason. In fact, I wonder what percentage of Paschal student body actually lives in Tanglewood.

As far as the academy model goes, I don't have a link on hand, but I encourage anyone to search for FWISD Gold Seal Schools of Choice and you can see the great progress that's already underway.

 

 

Exactly. To answer Doohickie's complaint, the old model of "let's make every school a great academic school" is outdated because of the specialization that certain schools are undertaking.  Plus, I just don't think it's realistic to begin with, in a city as large and diverse as Fort Worth.

 

I'm a pretty good example of how this system has changed, in that I have 3 kids in FWISD and haven't sent a single one to the school that we were zoned for at the time...for various reasons.

[mmmdan]

Here's your link to the FWISD Gold Seal Schools of Choice programs. https://www.fwisd.org/choice 

A link to see the catalog is on the left.

[bclaridge]

Overall Paschal's scores don't look impressive, but I think the top 50%, on a student-for-student basis, would compete well academically with Carroll and Colleyville.  Fort Worth needs to do a better job of touting this, though it can be politically sensitive.  But long-term the future is very bright in that zone.  Hopefully it's the beginning of an inner city renaissance in the school district.  Lots of green shoots... 

 

Definitely interesting to note as Tanglewood is comparable with Southlake Carroll elementary schools in terms of its test scores.  It would be interesting to know statistically how those from Tanglewood perform at McLean and Paschal vs. those who came from other elementary schools to see if the trends continue through secondary school.  Though if I had to make an educated guess, I would bet that the Tanglewood group would outperform those from other schools, if only due to factors that are related to socioeconomic status.  If you hypothetically moved the Tanglewood kids elsewhere in the FWISD (including during elementary) they would probably still outperform the other kids.

 

Those in the know already know that the Tanglewood zone is good, and while it would be nice to recognize this officially, as you mentioned it is a very politically sensitive issue in a school district that is largely composed of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, whereas this would not be the case in a district such as Carroll ISD, Highland Park ISD, or to a lesser extent Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, that are largely homogeneous in terms of having children from higher socioeconomic classes (GCISD does have a non-insignificant number of lower SES kids though).

 

I do agree that Tanglewood should serve as a seed for an renaissance for FWISD though.  There are also some other areas that are worth emphasizing too, such as the Stripling MS zone and its feeder elementary schools (North Hi Mount, South Hi Mount, and especially Burton Hill) -- the elementaries here are already comparable to some suburban districts and Stripling is one of the better middle schools in FWISD (along with McLean and Benbrook), though Arlington Heights HS could use some efforts to improve its academic performance and add more specialized programs too.  If pulled off right AHHS could become a second Paschal for FWISD.

[hannerhan]

Paschal's new high school gym opens for business today.  It has been largely built with private donations because the school district didn't have the funds to allocate.  

 

I haven't seen a new article on this but here is one from when construction kicked off:

https://www.star-tel...e103707682.html

[hannerhan]

https://www.star-tel...e220229505.html

Paschal gym opening article...

[renamerusk]

(1) Rename, I checked your idea.  The athletic grounds at McLean are too small.  The current Paschal Campus is about 30 acres.  To get 30 acres, you would have to buy out the houses on Winfield and Brady.  Plus, you would have to either utilize the existing McLean Middle School buildings and expand them, or tear it down and build new. 

 

(2) With this idea, you have created another problem.  Now you would have to relocate McLean somewhere else.  Another issue would be the athletic fields across Stadium Drive from the current school.  St. Andrew Catholic Church actually owns that field.  You would have to purchase the land from the Catholic Church. 

 

(3) I have one more comment.  Even though you have relocated the campus further north than the industrial area previously mentioned, you still have moved the campus closer to Southwest and South Hills High School and further from the geographic center of the attendance zone.

(1) It is not impossible to get the same class room space on the site across from McLean.  I would bet that an developer of an apartment building could get 200 units on that amount of land.  Schools do not have to use post war blueprints.  I think it can be done.

 

(2) Why wouldn't St. Andrew Catholic Church sell to FWISD for a good and necessary goal? Churches do sell off property sometimes.

 

(3) The geographic center does not hold as much sway as it may have in the past.  Parents and students want to attend a school or a program that best fit their aim.  My nephew who lived in Far South Fort Worth and Crowley ISD wanted to attend FWISD's Trimble Tech for the finance program that was available.  And students come from throughout the district to attend Fort Worth STEM Academy

 

-https://www.youtube....h?v=YffAAGqScrg

 

https://dfw.cbslocal...th-new-academy/

 

 

Farrington Field and other property owned by the FWISD should be sold if the proceeds will be used to build new campuses and equipped them with the state of the art tools. 

[John T Roberts]

(1) You probably could get the same amount of classroom space of the existing Paschal on the block across from McLean.  However, that still doesn't leave a lot of room for parking or athletic fields.  The current layout of Paschal is terribly inefficient, but it is a 1937 building that has been expanded many times.  I don't have here at home the recommended acreage of a FWISD High School campus, but I did look up what is recommended.  20-30 acres is recommended, with the median being 25 acres.  Even at 25 acres, it would take both sides of Stadium Drive and you have still displaced McLean.

 

(2)  I was just thinking that it would probably be harder to acquire a church property used for athletics and recreation for its private school students than it would be to acquire the property from individual residents.

 

(3) Yes, it is not as important as it used to be for schools to be in the geographic centers of their attendance zones, but I was still thinking that it seemed inappropriate to have three schools in the same section of town geographically close to each other, yet the remainder of their attendance zone was quite some distance away.  The specialized schools do accept students from other districts and throughout the FWISD's boundary, but Paschal, Southwest, and South Hills all do have attendance zones and feeder schools.  You can also get exemptions to attend Paschal if you do not live in its zone.

[JBB]

Fort Worth ISD bond packages on today's ballot - school remodel and construction prop looks to pass and the 3 propositions focusing on fine arts and sports seems poised to fail.

[John T Roberts]

With the failure of Proposition 3, it might save Farrington Field from the wrecking ball for a few more years.

[Austin55]

Similar to the DA's office, I think the limited explanation of what was happening with significant points of interest like Farrington did not inspire confidence for voters to approve these propositions. 

[elpingüino]

Fort Worth ISD bond packages on today's ballot - school remodel and construction prop looks to pass and the 3 propositions focusing on fine arts and sports seems poised to fail.

Proposition A for renovating and constructing schools has just a 42-vote lead with absentee ballots still uncounted. https://www.star-tel...e255486781.html

[elpingüino]

Some 300 uncounted absentee and provisional ballots could determine the fate of the $1.2B Proposition A.
https://www.star-tel...mainstage_card3

[JBB]

Proposition A passed by razor thin margin:

https://www.star-tel...e255682761.html

[John T Roberts]

There are MWBE requirements for both architects, consultants, and contractors.  I am not sure if being Fort Worth based is a factor in the scoring for selection of an architect. 

[roverone]

In the case of the new-ish Overton Park Elementary, the gym is built in such a way to serve as a storm shelter:

 

https://bennett.part...mentary-school/

[John T Roberts]

It is now a code requirement for new schools to have storm shelters large enough to house the entire student body within them. After touring Overton Park Elementary School for my continuing education last year, I learned that the gymnasium was built as a storm shelter.  For a school with no basement, a weather hardened concrete gym would suffice.  

[JBB]

The school (not FWISD) that my wife worked at for several years had a preschool wing added in 2020 and that entire set of classrooms was fortified as a storm shelter.

[SCHMJDT]

My parents live four blocks from Joplin High School, on the night of graduation the tornado touched down right when commencement was supposed to start in the Gym.  But for the first time in Joplin history they had too many students and had moved the ceremony to the University at Missouri Southern. This tornado was a different breed, but still amazing to see the devastation.  For reference the Gym is at the bottom left of the screen

 

[Austin55]

The devastation Joplin faced was remarkable. 

 

I know a guy in a largeish west Texas city that was the driving force behind getting the ISD to update the building codes so that schools would be tornado-resistant. The ISD passed a massive bond to retrofit all the schools. Said guy also happened to own the construction company that got all the contracts to do the work. Convenient!  

[SCHMJDT]

The devastation Joplin faced was remarkable. 

 

I know a guy in a largeish west Texas city that was the driving force behind getting the ISD to update the building codes so that schools would be tornado-resistant. The ISD passed a massive bond to retrofit all the schools. Said guy also happened to own the construction company that got all the contracts to do the work. Convenient!  

Each time I go back to see them, that town still isn't right twelve years later, the entire center of the city was leveled, it lacks mature trees and developed homes.  As a result of the greenery being gone, you don't see birds, at night you don't hear the bugs.  Its better now, but the first three years until they got street lights back up, it was bizarre and eerily quite and dark there. 

 

Although, I will never forget the 4th of July that first summer.  It had been six weeks of just people sifting through the damage and debris and finally things getting back to normal with power and water.  that weekend was a non stop party and never seen more fireworks and celebrations anywhere I had ever been.  My dad joked it was people taking their frustration out on the sky, and sure seemed like it.