Three Fort Bend ISD schools were ranked as the bottom 5% for academic performance among Title I schools in the nation for three consecutive years, spurring the district to begin improvement plans.

At the Feb. 10 agenda review meeting, FBISD trustees discussed improvement plans for Marshall High School, McAuliffe Middle School and Blue Ridge-Briargate Elementary School. A Title I school is a school where at least 40% of the student population is from low-income households.

In a nutshell

A review of lesson plans and staff interviews have found the low academic performances at the campuses are due to inconsistent implementation of curriculum, FBISD Chief of Schools Andria Schur said.

At the upcoming Feb. 17 board meeting, FBISD trustees will vote to implement improvement plans that reinforce grade-level appropriate rigor.


How does it work?

The planned improvements for the three campuses will begin in the 2025-26 school year. Schur said improvements are based on metrics that have contributed to the federal designation of Comprehensive Support and Improvement, or CSI, such as:
  • Marshall High School: low performance on math and reading portions of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR; graduation rates; and college, career, and military readiness, or CCMR, rates
  • McAuliffe Middle School: math and reading STAAR scores
  • Blue Ridge-Briargate Elementary School: math and reading STAAR scores
The schools will undergo strategies to improve instructional materials and effective instruction, Schur said.

“The target improvement plan for the comprehensive campuses is essentially for next year for that planning and implementation, but we've already started the work,” Schur said.

What’s changed?


Schur said the following protocols were implemented this school year to head start the improvement plan:
  • Academic affairs administrators have joined professional development with teachers
  • Community members gave feedback through Campus Planning Advisory Council and Title I nights
  • District officials are joined with school leadership teams for biweekly walkthrus of the schools
  • District review of academic progress scores
Next year, the district will prepare district assessments to monitor academic progress, Schur said.

What's next?

While many of these changes begin with district administrators' involvement, the avenues of communication down to teachers and staff will ensure thorough implementation of the improvement plan, said Jareetha Jordan, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning.

Quarterly checks with campus groups alongside a third party will continue at these campuses to receive feedback from community members, she said.


“You may not see it happening super fast at the campus level, I want to be very transparent, because it's happening really fast at the central office level,” she said.