Are your kids reading on grade level? This Fort Worth parents group can help you find out
With a little over a month left before most students in the Fort Worth area head back to school, a local organization is offering workshops to help parents pinpoint areas where their kids need to catch up.
The education advocacy organization Parent Shield Fort Worth is holding a series of literacy clinics at several locations across the city throughout the month of July. During the check-ins, staffers from school districts in the Fort Worth area will give students brief assessments to determine whether they’re reading on grade level, and educators and advocates will be on hand to talk to parents about how to use that information to advocate for their children’s needs.
Although students in the Fort Worth area have made progress in reading since the pandemic, an official in the Fort Worth Independent School District told its board last week that the district is still seeing worrisome declines in early literacy indicators among Black students in third grade and below. Officials say they’re working with the district’s new leadership team to give added support to campuses in the district that need the most help.
Literacy clinics help parents prep for school year
Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, the group’s president, said she’s met with countless parents in the city who are concerned about their children’s reading level, but don’t feel like they have enough information to do anything about it. In one case, a mother told Dorsey-Hollins that her daughter consistently made As and Bs, but she knew the girl struggled to read.
“Once we started really telling her… you’re not alone, she just broke down crying,” Dorsey-Hollins said.
Dorsey-Hollins said the literacy checkups are designed to help parents like that woman feel more empowered to take control of the children’s education. When a child scores below grade level on the evaluation, representatives from the organization will sit down with parents to talk about their options, she said. For some parents, that may mean holding their child’s school accountable, she said. For others, it may mean changing schools. In those cases, the organization can help families look at school choice options and decide which is the best fit for their student, and manage the transfer process, she said.
By holding the check-ups over the summer, the group hopes to help parents put their kids on a better footing for the start of the school year, Dorsey-Hollins said. Many students still have gaps in their learning left over from remote schooling during the pandemic. If parents have a better idea of how their kids are doing academically, they can be better positioned to take a more active role in their children’s education going forward, she said. That information can also help them work with their child’s new teacher to put together a plan to close those gaps, she said.
“The main thing is that they know what kind of conversation they need to have going into the start of the year,” she said.
Fort Worth ISD sees declines in early literacy among Black students
Across all public school districts and charter schools in Fort Worth, 46% of students in grades 3-8 scored on grade level or better in reading on last year’s STAAR exam, according to an analysis of state data by the nonprofit Fort Worth Education Partnership. That total was up from just 33% of students in those grades the year before. Results of the 2023 STAAR reading exam are expected in mid August.
During a Fort Worth ISD school board meeting Tuesday evening, Sara Arispe, the district’s associate superintendent of accountability and data quality, said the district had made gains in early literacy among its youngest students since the pandemic. In last spring’s end-of-year testing, 81% of the district’s pre-kindergarten students scored on track in phonological awareness, which is the understanding of how sounds go together to make up words. Although the district still fell three points short of its goal, that figure represents steady growth, and places the district ahead of where it was before the beginning of the pandemic.
Phonological awareness is an early indicator of reading ability, and researchers say students who don’t develop those skills often struggle to learn to read later on.
But Arispe said African-American pre-kindergartners made up the only group that didn’t improve in phonological awareness. This year, 75% of pre-K African-American students tested on track in phonological awareness, down from 76% last year. During the 2021-22 school year, about 21% of the district’s students were Black.
African-American students in kindergarten through third grade were also the only group to decline in reading fluency on end-of-year MAP exams. This year, 44% of African-American students in those grades met or exceeded grade level expectations on the test, down from 45% last year. English learners held steady at 49% compared to last year, and all other student groups improved.
Superintendent Angélica Ramsey said the district will shift its budget strategy in the coming year toward a model that provides greater support to its highest-need campuses. She compared the strategy to a visit to a doctor’s office: Not all patients need the same thing, so doctors have to work with them to diagnose the problem and come up with a plan to treat it. Likewise, she said the needs of each school are different, and the level and type of support campuses get from the district should take those differences into account.
Trustee Wallace Bridges said he was bothered by the lack of progress in reading scores among African-American students. Bridges, who is Black, said parents in his district approach him with questions about what the school district is doing to fix the problem. For those families, the issue isn’t abstract, he said — their own child or grandchild can’t read at grade level, and they’re worried. He told district leaders that he wants to see more progress.
“I’m really concerned when I see a population of students that we are unable to move the needle,” Bridges said. “We are just spending too much money, and we are not reaching that group.”
To schedule an appointment for a literacy clinic, go to parentshield.org/freedomjuly.
This story was originally published July 3, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
