Less than half of Fort Worth ISD students can read at grade level, district reveals
FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth ISD is moving forward with a new strategic plan aimed at improving lackluster reading scores. It was approved by the school board Tuesday night.
The changes come after the disturbing revelation that less than half the district's students are reading at the appropriate grade level.

Fort Worth ISD's Student Literacy Plan
What we know:
Fort Worth ISD’s newly adopted strategic plan starts with four main priorities:
- Student academic excellence
- Student and family engagement
- Employee effectiveness and retention
- Operational alignment and efficiency
A significant focus of the plan will address what’s identified as the district’s most urgent need: the disturbing fact that 1 in 2 Fort Worth ISD students currently do not read at grade level.
What they're saying:
"Our teachers and our leaders are the most important people in this district. We work for them," said Interim Superintendent Karen Molinar. "This strategic plan will show you how we’re going to turn this around by working for them and giving them what they need."
Swift feedback on the plan and parent engagement came during Tuesday night’s board of trustees meeting.
"I’m eager to say that this plan in more than a few ways does mimic the work of Parent Shield and the consistent effort that we presented before you on countless times, providing assessments to students and putting the reports in the hands of parents," said parent Trenace Dorsey-Hollins.
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Virtual learning negatively impacted STAAR test scores, results show
Across the state, the failure rate for the reading portion of the STAAR test increased by 4% compared with 2019, and it was 16% higher on the math portion. Nearly 4 out of 10 students are not even close to being ready for the next grade. The biggest impact was felt by virtual learners.
"We need to be very thoughtful on how we receive feedback from parents. We cannot just do this by an emailed survey," another parent told the board. "Our parents do not see these. Many of them are working three jobs, and I do not have time to do this sort of feedback."
The district’s literacy problem has drawn the attention and support of city leaders.
"If we continue to have generations of kids who are reading not at grade level, we won’t be able to attract those companies that we want to bring to Fort Worth and beyond," said Mayor Pro Tem Gyna Bivens. "So this is very important."
"We want the public to know that we did hear you, and we read all the feedback," said Molinar. "We had over 3000 stakeholders give us feedback — all the way from parents, community members as well as teachers and other employees in our district."
By the numbers:
Fort Worth ISD is home to 70,000 students. The majority of them are African American and Hispanic, and most are from underserved communities.
The backstory:
This literacy roadmap is more than a year in the making and follows criticism of former Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Angelica Ramsey, who did not present a proposal for consideration until late summer 2024. It was rejected amid claims that it lacked transparency.
The Source: Information in this article comes from Tuesday's Fort Worth ISD school board meeting, the meeting agenda and previous FOX 4 reports.