After split with charter partner, where does this Fort Worth school go from here?

When the Fort Worth Independent School District partnered with an Indianapolis-based charter school operator to run a struggling middle school two years ago, leaders hoped the partnership would turn the school into one of the district’s strongest campuses.

But after more than a year of disappointing results, the district will part ways with Phalen Leadership Academy over the summer. Now, school officials have to figure out what comes next for J. Martin Jacquet Middle School. But despite the split, leaders say they’re still committed to turning the Stop Six campus around.

“Jacquet is still one of our highest-priority schools,” said David Saenz, the district’s chief of innovation.

Phalen partnership marked by unmet expectations

In a statement, Fort Worth ISD leaders said the split, which takes effect June 30, was a mutual decision between the district and Phalen. Earl Phalen, founder and CEO of the charter operator, said he appreciated the chance to work with the district and the Jacquet community.

“We are grateful for and appreciate the teachers, school leaders, parents, and scholars for their commitment to achieving that success,” he said. “We continue to support Jacquet as they end the school year, and we look forward to the continued academic growth of the scholars.”

When the school district partnered with the charter operator, the agreement came with high expectations. Included in the contract was a requirement that Jacquet make steady academic improvements over the course of the partnership. Under the agreement, the school, which had been an F-rated campus for years, was supposed to improve enough that it would receive a C rating last year and a B rating this year.

But that progress didn’t materialize as quickly as district officials hoped. Reading and math scores on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, remained poor at the school last year. Campus culture issues persisted, as well: According to district records obtained through an open records request, there were 254 fights and student-on-student assaults at Jacquet during the 2021-22 school year, which was Phalen’s first year operating the campus. That total made Jacquet one of the district’s most violent schools, records show.

Jacquet principal will remain after charter school split

When district leaders announced plans to end the partnership with Phalen, they also announced that principal Channa Bassett, who is still in her first year at Jacquet, would remain at the school next year. Bassett, who was unavailable for comment, is the eighth principal the school has had since 2012.

Saenz, the Fort Worth ISD official, said the district has no plans to seek out another partner to run Jacquet. In the next few weeks, district leaders work with Bassett to figure out what kinds of support the school needs, Saenz said. That could include extra staff to reduce class size, after-school programs and services to help students deal with mental and behavioral health issues, he said.

At a school board meeting last year during which board members approved of the firing of Bassett’s predecessor, several teachers asked the board to consider how that revolving door of school leaders affects students. English teacher Tonia Robertson told the board she’d had six principals in the seven years she’d taught at the school. She compared the situation to that of a football team that can’t win because it doesn’t have a clear strategy and effective leadership.

“When you continue to change the coach, you’re not going to have an effective season. Because every coach has a new idea and a different play,” she said. “We’ve had six different coaches, six different ideas, six different plays. The only thing that remains is our students.”

Saenz said an effective principal is one of the most important pieces the district needs if it hopes to turn a struggling school into a successful one. There are certain things the district can do to support school turnarounds, he said. It can direct more resources toward the school and create programs to help students succeed. But it falls to the principal to implement those programs and use those resources effectively, he said, so they play a key role in driving student success.

“Next to the teacher, the principal is the most important driver in the school,” he said.

School board member is confident in Jacquet principal

When the board voted to adopt the partnership in 2021, Trustee Quinton “Q” Phillips, who represents Jacquet, said the proposal amounted to a vote of trust that students at the school aren’t the problem. If the adults who run the district don’t find a way to turn the school around, Phillips said, they’ll look back years later and realize Jacquet is still suffering from the same problems it has for decades.

At a school board meeting last month, Phillips was the first to make a motion that the district end the partnership with Phalen. Phillips told the Star-Telegram that it was clear the partnership with Phalen wasn’t working. But he called Bassett “a fantastic leader,” and said the fact that the district was able to bring her in to run Jacquet means the partnership wasn’t a total loss. The nearly-annual change in leadership at Jacquet was disruptive and made it hard to develop any kind of consistent plan for the school, he said.

Phillips said he’s confident that Bassett has the expertise she needs to turn Jacquet around. Once the district brought her in, the climate at the school began to change, he said. Teachers began to feel better supported and had more confidence in her leadership, he said.

But with the partnership in place, Bassett was often caught in the middle, he said, sometimes answering to the district and other times answering to Phalen. With the partnership ending, district leaders need to support her and work with her and other educators in the building to build the consistency that’s been lacking there for years, he said.

Mar’Tayshia James, a restorative justice specialist who is challenging Phillips for the District 3 school board seat in next month’s election, said she spoke last year with a number of teachers at Jacquet who told her they didn’t feel supported at school. James, who attended the school when it was known as Paul Lawrence Dunbar Middle School, said many of the teachers who worked there while she was in school were excellent, and many of them are still there. She said she wants to see the district do a better job of supporting those teachers so they don’t burn out and leave the profession.

Valeria Nevarez, a property manager who is also vying for the District 3 seat, said she wasn’t familiar with the particulars of the situation at Jacquet. But when schools are struggling, leaders need to be held accountable, she said. It’s also important that the campus gets the support it needs from every level, she said — principals should back teachers up, and the district’s central administration should back principals up.

Principals are key players in school turnarounds, expert says

Sarah Woulfin, a professor of educational leadership and policy in the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education, said principals can play a key role in turning struggling schools around. Although many people may be most familiar with principals as the person who deals with discipline issues, instructional leadership makes up a much bigger part of their jobs, she said.

Principals, especially those in struggling schools, often meet with teachers to look over student performance data and talk about which teaching strategies work and which ones need to change, Woulfin said. They also make sure teachers have access to information and training so that they can put the school’s instructional plan into practice, she said.

Principals also need to think strategically about hiring and retaining teachers, Woulfin said. That includes thinking creatively about improving working conditions in their buildings and making sure their highest-performing teachers feel valued and respected, she said.

“They want the highest-quality teachers to be in that building, teaching every single day for kids because we know that’s the ultimate lever for improving and turning around the school,” she said.

Woulfin said the near-constant change in leadership that Jacquet has seen over the past few years creates an environment where success is difficult to find. Even when two principals are working from the same framework, each will have a different approach and strategy for running a school, she said. When a principal leaves after only a year, teachers barely have enough time to get used to that leader’s approach before someone else replaces them, she said.

That can be frustrating for teachers, she said, because it means they’re constantly shifting gears but they never get a chance to see whether any of the new strategies they’re being asked to adopt make a difference.

“Nobody wants to try something and then feel like they fail at it or feel like they’re not good at it, and teachers are no exception,” she said. “Teachers want to see the positive change, and see the improvements from the work they’re doing and the changes they’re making. They’re not going to see those changes if the principal isn’t sticking around long enough to provide that support.”