It’s no secret that Education Commissioner Mike Morath has been a fan of the work happening in Dallas. He has praised their performance for several years now.
Morath arrived in Dallas ISD on Friday morning with compliments for the district, where he once sat on the board of trustees.
“Leadership matters, management matters, the leadership of the board, Dr. Elizade, Dr. Meeker has delivered results for kids,” said Morath.
93% of Dallas ISD schools scored an A, B, or C on their state accountability grades released Friday morning. More than 72% scored an A or B.
“We don’t get points because we try hard; results matter,” said Stephanie Elizalde, Superintendent, Dallas ISD.
Fort Worth ISD got results, too. There was a dramatic drop in failing campuses from 2022 to 2024, and even more this year.
“I feel much better than where we were last year, definitely going from 31 ‘F’ campuses down to 11. It’s fantastic,” said Karen Molinar, Superintendent, Fort Worth ISD.
The man who will be the ultimate judge of how fantastic it is didn’t seem impressed with Fort Worth ISD’s ability to deliver a high-quality education.
“We want every local school board to do that,” said Morath. “Unfortunately, in cases where a school board has failed to be able to do that, like in Fort Worth, then the question is how do we turn those schools around as rapidly as possible for those families.”
Morath pledged to spend time in the district starting next month to observe firsthand how teaching is taking place.
Dallas’ superintendent made big changes in 2022, adopting a new curriculum — every time we’ve sat down with her since then, she’s told us she’s making no more changes, but giving it time to work.
Fort Worth actually adopted some of those same curriculum changes in 2022, but didn’t wait it out; they ousted their Superintendent, Angelica Ramsey, even though the newly released numbers show improvement when she was in charge.
We asked current Superintendent Molinar if Ramsey deserved some of the credit for the improvement.
“I think our teachers had a hand in it, they are the ones responsible, our principals are the ones, they follow what the expectations are on their campuses. They’re not my results, they’re their results, and knowing my predecessor, we should feel the exact same way,” said Molinar.
There was data showing declines in growth in 2023 and 2024 in Fort Worth, and other data shows areas without improvement. The ultimate judge in this is Mike Morath, and based on what we heard from him on Friday, Fort Worth ISD has a long way to go.