STAAR shows FWISD on path for literacy goals

Fort Worth Independent School District Superintendent Kent Scribner had a mission.

He wanted 100 percent of third-graders reading at grade level by 2025. The school district rolled out the 100x25 FWTX initiative to do just that

And if the STAAR results are any proof, Scribner’s mission is a successful one.

“We said we were going to narrow our focus on what really matters. This first round of STAAR results following that commitment shows we are focusing on the right things,” Scribner said in a news statement.

Though the STAAR results mainly dropped statewide, Fort Worth has an uptick in scores in many areas between grades three and eight — which is fantastic. But even more phenomenal is the rise in the third-grade reading and math scores.

Third grade is a crucial moment in a child’s education. It’s when learning to read becomes reading to learn. If a student isn’t reading at grade level by then, he or she is much more likely to fall behind in school.

Shaping up third-grade literacy for the future has been the cornerstone of Scribner’s vision, and it is heartening to see it pay off in this year’s STAAR test results.

Congratulations to the Fort Worth Independent School District for all its continued hard work to build better futures for its students and to the students who worked hard on their STAAR tests.

This story was originally published July 11, 2017 at 5:57 PM with the headline "STAAR shows FWISD on path for literacy goals."