‘Key to greatness’: Fort Worth ISD teaches parents how to engage with student literacy
Literacy coordinator Monique Ervin explained the link between family time and learning time to a Fort Worth Independent School District parent, who listened intently as she learned techniques to help her daughter improve her early reading skills at home.
The parent, Arlene Olvera, asked Ervin specifically for help with her kindergarten-age daughter’s blending, or merging individual sounds of a word together to read it. It’s an important literacy skill that Olvera’s daughter has been experiencing trouble with lately, even though the child knows the letter sounds themselves. Ervin showed Olvera a lesson specific to blending that Olvera could use at home with her daughter through Lexia, an online reading program utilized by the district.
“I didn’t know that I could log into her Lexia and have that scripted for me to, basically, me be the teacher. And she’ll just be already familiar with it,” Olvera told the Star-Telegram. “Right now, she’s not (reading on grade level), but she does have learning disabilities. So that does play a factor. We’re being proactive, and we’re getting her the help that she needs through the school district.”
Olvera was among a group of parents who attended the district’s family literacy conference on Saturday, April 12, where educators hosted more than 20 workshops at O.D. Wyatt High School for parents to learn how they can both contribute to — and track — their child’s reading progress across all grade levels.
Staff also helped parents with enrollment for the upcoming school year, distributed free backpacks and books, and provided interactive activities. Superintendent Karen Molinar gave a presentation — translated into Spanish by a bilingual staff member — at the beginning of the conference to reiterate the district’s ongoing literacy plan to boost student achievement, which was
“We know that literacy is the key to greatness. For whatever we want to do in life, we have to be able to read,” Molinar said. “We really need your help and support at home by making sure … that their homework is done, that you check their grades (and) their attendance. Read with them and have them review, but then, more importantly, ask them about school each day.”
The family literacy conference is part of an effort as the district is strategizing and working to turn around its stagnant reading and test scores. Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker called attention to Fort Worth ISD’s shortcomings, compared to other urban school districts across Texas, at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. The calls and proposals for change have gained momentum ever since.
The school board approved a strategic plan in January, including a goal to have half of Fort Worth ISD third-graders performing on grade level in reading and math by 2029. There were 33% of Fort Worth ISD students who scored on grade level in reading on last year’s STAAR — or State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness — exam. This percentage has been virtually unchanged for at least a decade.
The Fort Worth ISD school board also passed a resolution in January to name literacy as the district’s highest priority. The Tarrant County Commissioners Court passed a resolution in February imploring all other Tarrant school districts to follow suit. A Fort Worth political action committee, Fort Worth Students First, announced its launch on April 4 with a mission of informing candidates for local elected offices about the value of literacy and why it should be at the top of their priorities, no matter what office they’re running for.
On Saturday, Molinar broke down the reading framework of how teachers are rolling out reading instruction for the 2025-2026 school year. Middle-schoolers will receive 90 minutes of reading instruction, and elementary students 120 minutes, a day. All students will get a foundational reading lesson, then they will demonstrate how much of the lesson they retained. Afterward, students will hone the lesson further through enrichment, or relearn the lesson through small-group tutoring.
This framework is one of five approaches to the district’s literacy plan. The other approaches include aligning the district’s budget toward literacy, aligning instructional resources, screening and monitoring students’ literacy performance and professional development for educators.
“Every campus will have a literacy lab classroom set up with a demonstration teacher that will be the master and model teacher on that campus. So the teacher needs help with instruction or how to deliver a lesson, or just needs to see how someone else on that campus is delivering that instruction, they’re able to walk down the hallway and watch it happening with students from their school,” Molinar said.
After Molinar spoke to attendees in the high school’s auditorium on Saturday, parents migrated to classrooms based on what workshops they wanted to listen to. Ervin, the literacy coordinator, shared four tips with parents on how to approach reading at home: Have conversations with children about the book being read; break words into smaller pieces; identify speech sounds; and model reading fluency. Asking open-ended questions about a book allows them to practice predicting, problem solving, comparing and contrasting, she said. Taking turns while reading passages, or reading them at the same time, shows the child how to read aloud with the correct pace and tone.
“You are your child’s first teacher. The parent is the child’s first teacher, just reading with them at home,” Ervin said. “Provide feedback on the proper tone, pausing and which words to emphasize, especially if you have a question mark or an exclamation point. That’s going to help you with comprehension.”
In classroom 1522, M.H. Moore Elementary Assistant Principal John Moore shared additional suggestions for parents and explained what reading milestones look like for elementary age groups. As students reach second grade, they’re becoming proficient readers who ideally can transition into independent reading and read longer books, he said.
“Starting in second grade, kids start to develop their personality for reading: ‘I like these books. I don’t like those kinds of books,’” he said. “Push them into the books they like, so they still keep that reading right there.”
Bakul Patel, a Carter Park Elementary parent with a son in pre-K and a daughter in third grade, asked Reed how his children could build more confidence around reading. Reed said students in pre-K, kindergarten and first grade can be shy about making errors, especially when reading aloud, but assuring them that mistakes are okay will grow their confidence to keep trying.
“The confidence comes from knowing that we’re going to make mistakes in reading, and it’s okay,” Reed said. “Words are crazy: ‘ough’ says 15 different sounds. You won’t get them all right every time, it takes practice. So if you start (in) lower grades, reading out loud and having them practice, even if they have mistakes, it’s going to help them later on to be okay making mistakes.”
Patel told the Star-Telegram that since moving to Fort Worth ISD from the Huntsville area north of Houston, he noticed a gap in the curriculum between the districts for his daughter. Patel has placed her at a local Kumon math and reading center for extra tutoring outside of school, which has helped her. He’s considering moving his children to a charter school next school year after he gets this year’s STAAR results back.
“I had one question I asked a staff member. What’s the difference between ISD and charter school? Because why should I keep my kids in ISD? I never tried charter school, but I (saw IDEA Public Schools). They look much better from outside,” Patel said. “I guess I’m still learning Fort Worth ISD.”
