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A new elementary school takes off in Fort Worth in August 2022.
Rocketship Public Schools Texas, led by superintendent SaJade Miller, has been approved to open public elementary charter schools in Tarrant County.
Rocketship focuses on providing high-quality elementary education to low-income communities to build a solid foundation for students before middle school. The group aims to create a more equitable public school system and eliminate the achievement gap by teaching students who would have gone to an underperforming elementary school.
Nearly 26,000 students in Tarrant County attend a chronically underperforming elementary school, according to Rocketship. This is measured by a D or F rating on the Texas Education Agency school performance rating scale, which classifies 52 elementary schools in the county as underperforming. The leadership of Rocketship Texas aims to fix this problem.
Rocketship Texas was founded by Tarrant County leaders including Walter Dansby, a former superintendent of the Fort Worth Independent School District; Peter Philpott, a former board chairman of Cook Children’s Healthcare System; and Loretta Burns, founder of AB Christian Learning, among others. The group of leaders shares expertise in public education, community organizing, and parent engagement.
A show of support from the community helped Rocketship Texas get approved to start a school. Nearly 50 local parents traveled to Austin to urge the Texas State Board of Education to approve the charter school — with this support, Rocketship became one of just three schools approved by the Board, and the only in Tarrant County.
Rocketship’s first elementary school will be located at 3520 E. Berry St. in the Stop Six neighborhood of southeast Fort Worth. The school will open for the 2022 – 23 school year.
More information about the upcoming school can be found at rocketshipschools.org/fortworth.
