Fort Worth ISD testing data shows promise for grades 3-8, struggles for freshmen
The Fort Worth Independent School District’s results from its latest quarterly assessments show promise for elementary and middle school students in English Language Arts, but a notable drop in test performance for older students taking English I.
Superintendent Karen Molinar presented the data from the district’s third quarterly assessment on April 22, and compared it to the two previous tests that students took in October and December. The latest data from early March shows about 40% of all students in grades 3-8 meeting grade level or higher in English and reading, two percentage points higher than student performance in December and 12 percentage points higher than October performance.
For students taking English 1 — typically ninth graders — the increase seen from October to December backtracked by the time spring testing took place. About 44% of students were meeting grade level or higher in the subject in October, which increased to 49% in December. In March, though, this percentage dropped by 12 percentage points.
Molinar said students were not completing the written portion of the assessment, or the constructive response, at the beginning of the year, but had improved by the December assessment. There was also a drop in the number of English 1 students completing the test from December to March.
“It’s very important that when we implement something, that it’s being implemented for a reason, but we have to show our teachers and our students the purpose of quarterly assessments, or any assessment, any initiative we put in place and show the value and how we’re using that,” Molinar said. “So that’s one of the commitments we’re making going in the 25-26 school year: more teacher feedback, more principal feedback, focus groups (and data).”
Molinar noted that the assessment data should not be used as a predictor of performance on STAAR, or the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, which is taken at the end of every school year. Fort Worth students are in the midst of STAAR testing, which began April 8 and ends May 2.
“How is our curriculum implementation, our instructional delivery in our students? Are they achieving and mastering the content in the classroom?” Molinar said. “It’s not a performance, even though we show the data in the same state accountability categories.”
Students take the quarterly assessments every nine weeks to help teachers quickly identify how well their students are learning the curriculum and reteach content to those who need it. The quarterly assessments are taken in addition to STAAR and NWEA MAP testing, which is issued at the beginning of the year, middle of the year and end of the year.
In the upcoming school year, students will do the assessments every six weeks in alignment with the release of report cards, except for periods when other testing is going on, Molinar said.
Molinar also presented a breakdown of how the district is investing in literacy initiatives as it prepares its budget for the upcoming school year.
Here are the literacy initiatives and how much the district is investing in each one:
Instructional support redesign: More than $22.7 million
Middle school block schedules, 21 new positions: More than $1.7 million
Additional research-based phonics program: $555,000
Dyslexia screener for seventh grade and new program: $579,950
Instructional planning calendar and instructional framework redesign: More than $2.3 million
Stipend proposals for bilingual, English as a Second Language and special education teachers: more than $1.8 million
Comprehensive data service for progress monitoring (data dashboard): $2 million
