Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath’s decision about the fate of the Fort Worth school district’s leadership could come any day now. There’s increasingly an expectation that he’ll pull the trigger on state intervention.
We remain skeptical that a takeover is appropriate, especially now that there are some signs of progress after years of academic stagnation. But if Morath decides to replace the elected school board, he and the new appointees should keep Superintendent Karen Molinar in place.
Molinar, who’s been on the job for a little over a year, has moved swiftly and with purpose in response to nightmarish statistics about how few young students can read or understand math at the appropriate grade level. She moved some administrative staff into classrooms to triage the crisis. The district will have “demo teachers” who both coach other educators and have their own classes, an attempt to improve the workforce by having teachers observe top co-workers. She streamlined reading instruction and boosted resources for it…