This Fort Worth ISD school boosted reading scores dramatically in 3 years. How? | Opinion

For the past few years, we have been inundated with “gloom and doom” stories about failing public schools, both locally and nationally. Worries were dramatically heightened as we observed the setbacks from school closures during the pandemic.

As a literacy advocate, I have been particularly concerned about the number of students in the Fort Worth ISD who are not learning to read proficiently. This year’s STAAR reading tests revealed that only 32% of FWISD third-graders were reading at grade level, improving to only 41% in fifth grade. We sent more than 2,800 students to middle school this year who were not prepared to succeed because of their inadequate reading skills.

Despite these depressing statistics, there are some bright spots to celebrate in the Fort Worth district. At De Zavala Elementary, Principal Marlette Martinez and her staff have taken a group of third-graders in which only 29% were reading at grade level in 2021 (the first year of STAAR testing post-pandemic) to a group of fifth-graders in 2023 in which 80% were reading at grade level.

That’s right: Among the same group of students, nearly three times as many reached grade-level reading in three years, in a school where over 80% of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch. This is truly a phenomenal accomplishment for the staff and the students of De Zavala, and they should be congratulated.

I had the opportunity to interview Martinez, the principal at De Zavala. The school’s success is the result of hard, focused work by both staff and students. She and her staff have embraced the use of evidence-based reading instruction, commonly referred to as the “science of reading,” and are effectively implementing the district’s recently adopted high quality reading curriculum.

Staff members are compulsive about ensuring student attendance, and they work diligently to involve parents in the education of their children. This school shows us that the techniques of instruction matter, and that all children, no matter their circumstances, can be taught to read in our public schools.

Other FWISD schools are making excellent gains in reading. The fifth-graders at Alice D. Contreras, George C. Clarke, Carroll Peak, Hubbard, and Worth Heights elementaries had grade-level STAAR reading scores more than 15% higher than the district average, and each of these schools has a student population where almost all students qualify for free and reduced lunch.

I mention the economic status of these schools because many argue that we cannot expect students in high-poverty neighborhoods to succeed academically. These excellent schools are proving otherwise and inform us that we should have high expectations for all students. Nine other FWISD schools with fewer students living in poverty also have more than 55% of fifth-graders reading at grade level.

Imagine how our city would change if all elementary schools in the Fort Worth ISD were so effective that no family would be tempted to move, either to certain neighborhoods in Fort Worth or to the suburbs, in search of a better school for their children? How would that affect residential real estate and the attraction of new businesses to the central city? Would teacher satisfaction improve, and might more young adults decide to become teachers because it is so fulfilling and fun to teach children who are succeeding?

Best of all, consider the gifts and talents that would be added to our city when our students are not artificially restrained by their inability to read. If 80% of our students could read at grade level instead of 40%, it would be transformative. It can be done — just ask Ms. Martinez!

Robert Rogers is a Fort Worth physician, a Reading Partners tutor, and president of The Reading League Texas.