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Updated: Wednesday, Dec. 10, 1997 at 02:10 CST

Newspaper hires research firm to scrutinize Fort Worth schools

FORT WORTH -- The `Star- Telegram has hired an Ohio research firm to conduct an academic audit of the Fort Worth school district, a two-month process that will include comparisons with U.S. districts of similar size and demographics.

The audit, by SchoolMatch of Westerville, Ohio, will begin in January and is scheduled to conclude in February or March. A team ]of former school administrators will visit various campuses ]during the audit, after which SchoolMatch will issue a report ]with ]recommendations for improvement.

Wesley R. Turner, president and publisher of the `Star-Telegram,' said the newspaper commissioned the $89,000 audit because it has a vital interest in looking for ways to assess and improve the community's most important institution -- its school district.

"We have asked SchoolMatch to help by determining how the Fort Worth school district and its campuses are performing and by offering recommendations to strengthen the educational process," Turner said.

School board President Gary Manny said he is looking forward to the audit, which he believes will identify the strong and weak points for the district of about 78,000 students.

"I don't think anyone would trust us to do that internal evaluation," Manny said. "I'm glad to have someone come in and take a look. I think we'll show up well against other urban districts. I think it will help give us a direction of what we need to be working on in the future."

Fort Worth officials are discussing a fall bond election, school attendance boundaries, a call for autonomy from some parents of Benbrook students, overcrowding at Paschal High School, and reading and mathematics initiatives begun by Superintendent Thomas Tocco.

"We have chosen to start the process in Fort Worth because it's the largest district in Tarrant County," Turner said of the audit. "We will review our options as they relate to other area districts in the future."

At last night's school board meeting, Star-Telegram Managing Editor Kathy Vetter briefed trustees about the audit.

"The beauty of an independent consultant is that they probably have a lot more credibility than either the school district or the newspaper," Vetter said.

Tocco said he is familiar with SchoolMatch's work in other districts.

"I'm sure they'll give us the benefit of comparisons they've made in the past," he said. "I look forward to it. This scrutiny will assist us."

The audit will include analysis of a wide variety ]of data including test scores, dropout rates, student and teacher attendance, and grade- point average of graduating seniors. It will also involve school visits; a survey of teachers, parents and administrators; and interviews with school and community representatives. The audit team will also analyze data collected from the district's ]100-plus ]campuses and compare each school's performance with that at similar schools nationwide.

Tocco and Manny were given lists of public data needed for the audit during a meeting last week with William Bainbridge, SchoolMatch president and chief executive. ]School officials have ]begun compiling that data, Manny said.

Bainbridge, a former school superintendent and assistant to the Ohio state school superintendent, said the firm has conducted more than 660 audits of educational excellence since 1986.

Trustee Elaine Klos asked Vetter last night if the firm could look at some of the district's special programs, such as the high academic or special education departments.

Vetter said the structure of the audit is predetermined but the auditors might examine other programs "anecdotally."

Until recently, most of the audits were commissioned by school districts. That frequently led to public criticism that the results were tainted by conflicts of interest, Bainbridge said.

Since 1993, three audits have been sponsored or co-sponsored by newspapers, including the `Florida Times-Union,' which paid for an audit of the Duval County school system in Jacksonville last year.

Donald Van Fleet, interim superintendent of the 126,000- student Duval County school system, said the SchoolMatch audit, which culminated with a report in June, was a positive experience overall.

Van Fleet said the audit pointed out some changes that district officials already knew were needed, such as creation of an accountability office, as well as problems that local officials might not have uncovered, ]such as grade inflation.

"Any large district has good and bad," Van Fleet said. "I think they did a relatively good job of showing both. The audit validates what the district wants to do but might not have the public support to do without an outside expert saying it."

Van Fleet said his board disagreed with some parts of the report, including criticism that trustees were too involved in day-to-day administrative functions.

"It kind of put me in the middle," he said. "But it made the board think about things they were not aware of. I don't think it was as bad as" SchoolMatch said.

Bainbridge said the other criticism of the Duval County audit was that the wording of a public survey aimed at judging perceptions was "above the heads of the general public."

That is somewhat "purposeful -- to let people know how little they know about the schools so they'll get involved," he said.

But Bainbridge said the surveys will be reworded to make them easier to understand before they are given to parents, teachers and administrators in Fort Worth.