How bad are reading skills for Fort Worth kids? Mississippi might be model to fix it | Opinion
As he helped break ground for the new Texas A&M campus in downtown Fort Worth recently, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare proclaimed: “Education is the cornerstone of prosperity. The establishment of this new Law and Education Building underscores our commitment to making Tarrant County the best educated workforce in America.”
At just about the same time, the results of the most recent survey of 13-year-old students’ reading and math proficiency based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress survey were reported, revealing major drops in both domains nationally. Of more local importance, based on the 2022 STAAR assessment, only 37% of Fort Worth ISD third-graders could read at grade level, and 29% were at grade level in math.
How can we expect the students of Fort Worth and Tarrant County to thrive in this exciting new higher education environment if they are unable to read or understand math proficiently?
John Goff, chairman of the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership, reported that he had met with representatives of more than 100 companies who had expressed interest in the A&M project. Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, and Alcon are already major partners. This may seem too obvious but: How many of these companies will expect their employees to be able to read?
Can we create the “best educated workforce in America” in Tarrant County? Not if we start at the higher education end of the ladder. First, we must teach all of our students to read. Is it possible to teach all kids to read, irrespective of ZIP code or economic hardship?
The answer is yes, and this answer comes from an unlikely source: Mississippi. Due to the strategic work of the Barksdale Reading Institute, in partnership with the state department of education, Mississippi skyrocketed from a rank of 49th to 21st in reading proficiency in the past 20 years.
The experience provides a road map for success. They invested in training teachers and school leaders in the best methods of teaching reading, cajoled university programs to train their students in these techniques and identified and required use of high-quality curricular materials. They used early screening tools to identify students with special challenges, engaged parents to participate in their child’s education and lobbied the state government to pass laws to support these efforts.
Could we duplicate these efforts in Fort Worth? Former Mayor Betsy Price launched a prominent reading initiative that continues under Mayor Mattie Parker, a public-education advocate. But we need a sustained commitment from both the public and private sectors. Are local school superintendents insisting on the best reading-instruction practices? Are our local universities giving education majors the best knowledge of how to teach reading?
Fort Worth needs a coordinated effort with a single leader to concentrate philanthropic money on a sweeping literacy project. Who’s willing to step up?
Just as Mississippi historically was near the bottom in reading proficiency compared to other states, FWISD has been last compared to the other major urban districts in Texas. Fortunately, Mississippi has shown us that our history does not determine our destiny. The Mississippi experience tells us that a partnership of philanthropy and governmental systems, led by a detail-oriented, empathetic champion, can result in dramatic improvement.
I never imagined I would ever say it, but let’s be like Mississippi.
