Students at this Fort Worth ISD campus can get one-on-one tutoring for reading
The Leadership Academy at Como Elementary School will pilot a new literacy tutoring program this school year to accelerate student academic growth. The program is unique to the campus but part of a greater push by Fort Worth ISD officials and community members to improve reading performance.
Students in kindergarten through second grade in need of additional reading instruction will work one on one with tutors through the Literacy First program. It will focus on addressing gaps in early childhood literacy through phonological awareness, letter sound knowledge, phonics and oral reading fluency.
The program, created by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, is being implemented at Como Elementary through philanthropic funding by Riverside Homebuilders. Fort Worth ISD’s school board approved the program at its July 22 meeting.
“Strong communities build strong schools. This partnership with a local community member and the Literacy First team brings additional resources and support staff to the Leadership Academy at Como. The initiative aligns with our mission to provide a high-quality education for our scholars as we work to accelerate literacy in early childhood education,” said Whitney Clark, the Leadership Academy Network’s chief network officer.
Officials hope to expand the one-year pilot at Como Elementary to other campuses that are part of the Leadership Academy Network in the future. The network consists of six Fort Worth ISD schools operated by Texas Wesleyan University through a partnership with the district. The university operates the campuses separately from other Fort Worth ISD schools through its own policies and curricula. The network was created in 2017 to turn around struggling schools, and the partnership with Texas Wesleyan began in 2019. The other campuses that are part of the network are John T. White Elementary, Mitchell Boulevard Elementary, Maude I. Logan Elementary, Forest Oak Middle and Leonard Middle schools.
Students will receive 30 minutes of additional reading instruction every day, and tutors will work with eight to 10 students daily, Clark said. There will be eight full-time tutors and a director overseeing the program, which will be provided in English and Spanish.
“We have phenomenal teachers. We have phenomenal kids, and so we’re just accelerating learning,” Clark said. “In the past three years, we now have 88% of our pre-K students that are meeting their letter recognition.”
Literacy First has been adopted at 54 schools in Central Texas and Tennessee, according to the program, and 80% of students show measurable improvement in reading skills.
An overhaul in literacy and math instruction has been underway in Fort Worth ISD since now-Superintendent Karen Molinar took over the reins of the district as interim superintendent in October 2024. Since then, district officials have declared literacy as its top priority, redirected millions in funding toward literacy priorities, and introduced a new instructional framework that they say will create consistency in classroom instruction.
Fort Worth ISD is currently at risk of a potential state takeover by the Texas Education Agency after the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade campus received its fifth consecutive failed rating in 2023. The A-F ratings are traditionally released every year by the state to give a measure of how campuses and school districts are performing academically, but the 2023 ratings weren’t released until this year after being tied up in a lawsuit.
After five consecutive failed ratings, state law requires the commissioner of education to either close the campus or take over the district through a state-appointed board of managers that would replace the school board. The Forest Oak Sixth Grade campus, though, was already closed by the district last year and merged with the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Middle School.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told the Texas Senate Education Committee on Wednesday that he would make a decision this fall on whether the school board would be replaced.
“I’ll be going back and doing on-site visits as soon as school starts up,” Morath said during the legislative hearing. “I want to get a good basis of the facts on the ground.”
Local report supports high-impact literacy tutoring
Parent Shield Fort Worth released a report last year, called Nurturing Minds, sharing data from its Literacy is Freedom Texas program, also known as LIFT. The program provided high-dosage, or high-impact, literacy intervention to Fort Worth students and tracked their results.
High-impact tutoring programs consist of groups no larger than four students who meet with a professionally-trained tutor two to three times a week for at least 30 minutes, according to the National Education Association.
According to the Parent Shield Fort Worth report, “96% of students who were below their grade level in reading achieved at least one grade level of growth in less than a third of a regular school year.”
The 10-week program, starting in May 2024, served 52 students who received 20-25 tutoring sessions that were 45-60 minutes each. Each student received 20 hours of intervention on average. Participating students attended schools in predominantly Black or Hispanic neighborhoods in Fort Worth.
In a statement, Parent Shield Executive Director Trenace Dorsey-Hollins said on Friday that the organization supports the type of literacy intervention that’s being rolled out at Como Elementary “because the data clearly shows it effectively closes reading gaps for children.”
“We also recognize that offering this support during the school day — rather than after school — leads to greater student growth, as it removes the burden from families to arrange additional support outside of school hours. In the first year of our LIFT literacy program, 96% of participating students made at least one year of growth. In our most recent cycle, students showed measurable gains in both fluency and comprehension. This is a powerful reminder that intentional, targeted support works — and it’s making a real difference for our kids,” she said.
