Nine months into one of the largest school-district takeovers in Texas history, the first round of statewide test results offers an early measure of whether new state-appointed leadership is moving the needle in Fort Worth. Preliminary spring high-school results show Fort Worth ISD students mirroring statewide gains on end-of-course exams even as the district remains well behind state averages, a snapshot that both supporters and critics of the intervention are reading closely.
The Texas Education Agency removed Fort Worth ISD’s elected board and replaced them with a nine-member board of managers, naming Dr. Peter B. Licata superintendent effective immediately, the agency announced on March 24. The TEA said Licata brings more than 30 years of experience and most recently led Florida’s Broward County Public Schools — the nation’s sixth-largest district — to its first state “A” rating in more than 14 years.
The takeover was triggered after a Fort Worth campus, the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak, received a fifth consecutive unacceptable accountability rating, the threshold state law sets for intervention.
On the academic measures the takeover was meant to address, the new data points in two directions at once. Fort Worth high schoolers posted improvements of about 10 percentage points in Algebra I and biology and gains of four to five points in English I, English II and U.S. history, the Fort Worth Report reported.
The same results, however, show the district trailing the state by double digits in the share of students meeting grade level across the five exams. The Report highlighted Southwest High School as a standout, where the share of tests scored at grade level or better rose from roughly 31% in 2025 to about 44% in 2026.
Supporters of the intervention point to that movement, and to Licata’s record, as evidence the turnaround is taking hold. The board of managers has moved quickly on operations, voting 8-0 to approve staff reductions as part of a broader turnaround plan for struggling schools, Dallas Express reported.
Licata has said he wants to keep effective campus leaders even as the district recruits new ones, telling the Fort Worth Star-Telegram the district is “trying to convince some of them that are really, really good that want to leave, to please stay,” per Dallas Express.
Critics question the cost of that disruption. Principal turnover has hit more than 30 campuses during the takeover, and some Fort Worth families have said they fear the upheaval will mirror the contested state takeover of Houston ISD, according to reporting by the Texas Observer. Opponents also point to the loss of an elected board as a democratic-accountability concern, while the agency maintains the step was required by law after years of failing grades at the campus.
The early test results will not settle the debate. Accountability ratings that fold in this year’s STAAR performance — and that ultimately determine how long the state retains control — are still ahead, leaving Fort Worth’s parents, teachers and managers to weigh incremental gains against the turnover and restructuring that have accompanied them.