Fort Worth ISD shares test results, approves programs for dyslexia and phonics
As Fort Worth Independent School District officials reviewed their official spring 2025 state test scores on Tuesday with an overall celebration of academic gains, leaders acknowledged that the work has just begun to sustain the improvements. The board at its meeting also approved new programs focused on dyslexia and phonics.
Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Karen Molinar first shared insights on the district’s official spring 2025 test results for grades 3-8 during the school board’s Tuesday night meeting.
The results from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam, or STAAR, were released last week by the Texas Education Agency, but Molinar had presented unofficial, preliminary testing data for these grades on June 10.
On Tuesday night, she broke down the data further, sharing how student groups fared compared to their peers and how students matched up against the state’s growth. She also shared STAAR Alternate 2 test results for students with disabilities. The addition of the STAAR Alternate 2 test results to the district’s preliminary data improved the percentages of students meeting grade level in reading across grades 3-8, in addition to high school testers who took the English I and English II end-of-course tests.
“I can’t remember when (STAAR Alternate 2 test takers) have increased our scores,” Molinar said. “It’s almost emotional. That means our special education teachers and our inclusion teachers are just doing wonderful work with our students in meeting their (individualized education programs). Have a long way to go still in that area, but we’re making gains not just with our general population, but our students who are diagnosed with a disability as well.”
The overall scores showed gains across almost every grade level and subject for students meeting grade level — the gains ranged from 1-10 percentage points. The only decrease in this performance level was seen in fifth-grade math, which saw a 2% drop compared to last year with 34% currently meeting grade level. Seventh-grade math performance stayed the same as last year with 5% of students meeting this benchmark.
Molinar noted that there’s still work to do to close the gaps between the general student population and student groups such as students who are African American, Hispanic, economically disadvantaged or learning English. But she highlighted the improvements seen by African American and Hispanic students in reading for fourth and fifth grade. There was an 11% increase seen by this student group who performed on grade level in the subject compared to white students who saw a 1% increase.
“In fifth-grade reading, our Hispanic and our African American students also showed over 2% gain from our other subgroups. They’ve received 7% versus 5% from our other subgroups. So very proud to see not only closing the gap, but increasing those gains as well,” Molinar said.
School board member Quinton “Q” Phillips said he’s thankful that Black students are starting to showcase their literacy skills through test scores. The student group has been among the lowest performing groups in the district.
“When you’re able to point out these gains that we’re seeing, that means that the adults are figuring it out. Adults are getting it right to be able to showcase what has been true all along: Black kids can read,” Phillips said. “So I’m grateful for that.”
During public comment, community members gave kudos to Molinar and district leaders for the academic improvements that were seen while acknowledging there’s still an uphill trek ahead.
Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, director of Parent Shield Fort Worth, held up a sign that read, “I’m here for literacy” while she told Molinar and the school board, “literacy is freedom and that’s justice for all of our kids.”
“Under the leadership of Dr. Molinar, we — and yes, I say we — have seen a powerful increase to our third- and fourth-grade reading scores, higher than we’ve seen in over a decade. That’s no small thing, and it gives me great hope not only for our districts, but for the futures of our students,” Dorsey-Hollins said.
“Of course, we still have a long ways to go, but these kind of strides are truly shifting the trajectory of Fort Worth ISD. So today, I stand here and say: The fight is not over. You will continue to see us. We will continue to advocate on behalf of parents and students.”
The results came as the district’s fate hangs in limbo this summer while it awaits an answer from TEA on whether the state agency will take over the district.
The potential intervention was prompted by a Fort Worth ISD campus, the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade, receiving a failing A-F accountability grade from TEA for five consecutive years. The fifth failing grade accounted for 2023, but it wasn’t released until this year due to litigation that prevented TEA from releasing the grades for two years. The finalized A-F accountability ratings for 2023 will be available in August, and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath is expected to make a decision on the potential takeover at that time.
The complication is, though, that the identified school was closed last year and its students were transferred to the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Middle School. Morath told district officials that TEA might still intervene despite this, noting that state law requires him to either close the campus or take over the district by way of replacing its elected school board with a state-appointed board of managers.
“I think we have to be very ... realistic that our work is just beginning, but we’re putting the right things in place. It’s like pedal to the metal, that we have to go even faster,” Molinar said on Tuesday. “We are still in an emergency response for our students in (the) Fort Worth Independent School District.”
New dyslexia model and phonics program
Molinar also outlined the district’s new model for serving students with dyslexia. Fort Worth ISD has experienced a growing gap between students in need and trained personnel while the current model hasn’t yielded growth of student outcomes, she said.
As a result, the district will introduce two programs in the fall known as Bridges and Take Flight that will be available at select, high-need campuses.
The Bridges program will consist of teachers providing dyslexia intervention with a virtual avatar co-teacher. The Take Flight program is an “intensive, therapist-delivered intervention for students with the most significant dyslexia needs.”
There are 17 dyslexia instruction providers who begin Take Flight training this month, while 60 providers will begin Bridges training in July, officials said.
“We have to pour funding into dyslexia because we’re going to have (a) student population that increases, and they need that resource as well,” Molinar said.
The school board also approved, in a 7-2 vote, a new phonics program for students in kindergarten through third grade that is connected to a larger, controversial state curriculum: Bluebonnet Learning. A portion of the reading curriculum has been criticized for its references to religious texts, but the phonics program adopted by Fort Worth ISD school board members does not include these references, district officials confirmed to school board members and to the Star-Telegram on Tuesday. Regardless, board members Camille Rodriguez and Wallace Bridges voted in opposition to the phonics program due to its association with Bluebonnet Learning.
The phonics program will be implemented in the 2025-26 school year at a price tag of almost $1 million, specifically $965,977.
“It’s such a lightning rod when you hear the word, ‘Bluebonnet.’ I’ve never seen anything that got more people ignited. So that’s a huge concern for me and many of the people that I talk with,” Bridges said on Tuesday.
Rodriguez said she had the same concerns.
“I agree with you, Trustee Bridges,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve had several conversations, and I will not be supporting this.”
Board member Anael Luebanos voiced support for the program’s inclusion of English and Spanish materials for students.
“I love that this has a Spanish component. So thank you very much for including that, making sure that the majority of our students will be able to use it,” he said.
This story was originally published June 24, 2025 at 11:01 PM.
