Parent advocacy group says these solutions could improve Fort Worth’s low reading rates

Sandra Quintana’s daughter didn’t know her ABCs.

He knew the song. He didn’t know every letter.

The little girl was in kindergarten.

Quintana didn’t learn how far behind her child was until she returned to Parent Shield’s Literacy is Freedom Texas program, an initiative the parents’ advocacy group launched over the summer to help students read at grade level through sixth grade.

10-week free intervention program It helped 52 students, almost all of whom were reading below their grade level, advance at least one grade level during the initiative’s three months, according to a new report released Oct. 29. Parental Shield The organization’s leaders see the program as a solution to Fort Worth’s low reading rates, but the biggest hurdle is cost, he said.

More than half of children living in Fort Worth cannot read at his/her grade levelAccording to a Fort Worth Education Partnership report.

In Fort Worth ISD, the city’s largest school district, approximately 1 in 3 students are reading at grade level.

Parent Shield Executive Director Trenace Dorsey-Hollins said children in Fort Worth need meaningful solutions.

“Just telling your children to read books at home is not the solution,” Dorsey-Hollins said. “We have to go a little deeper than just reading. We need to intervene a little. We have to do what works.”

Over the summer, Parent Shield interventionists at two Boys & Girls Clubs in Tarrant County played word-matching games and made reading fun for elementary students like Quintana’s daughter and third-grader Olivia Dawson.

Dorsey-Hollins said most parents who participate in the program had no idea their children’s reading problems were so pronounced.

When Olivia’s mother, Nancy Horne, noticed that her then-first-grade daughter was having trouble reading, she didn’t have the time or resources to tutor her children. He said he couldn’t afford to hire someone either. Instead he used a newly discovered connection to intervene. Juanita Aldama, a program interventionist, stepped in to provide support.

The high-dose tutoring program, which ended June 27, provided structured reading intervention twice a week during the school year and four days a week during the summer.

Taught in breakout groups of three students by age or reading level, the curriculum was filled with lessons on word pronunciation and sentence structure. The program’s focus on small group instruction may also have made a difference, Dorsey-Hollins said.

Each session was 45 minutes long; We spent the last 15 minutes talking to parents about their students’ progress. Teachers sent updates to parents each week, informing them of tools and resources they could use at home.

Dorsey-Hollins said the program costs about $1,300 per student.

Aldama, who is responsible for 12 of the 25 students split between the two locations, has noticed a clear increase in her students’ self-confidence.

According to Parent Shield’s report, 90% of parents find that they feel more confident in their students’ reading skills.

“I have found that reading comes easier to them, and it is very rewarding to see kids get really excited about reading and learning,” Aldama said.

Dorsey-Hollins emphasized that the program’s results are replicable for school districts in Fort Worth. School districts have students in the 10-week Parent Shield program for much longer than that.

“We know that in schools where our children are three times that number, they should be able to grow for at least two to three years with targeted interventions,” Dorsey-Hollins said.

Dorsey-Hollins said preliminary assessments of students are critical to giving teachers and parents a starting point about students’ abilities.

School districts are already doing this, but they’re not presenting it to parents in a way that’s accessible and easy to understand, he said. Dorsey-Hollins pointed to Fort Worth ISD and its use. Northwest Assessment Association’s Measures of Academic Progressor MAP, test as sample. MAP tracks students’ academic progress throughout the school year.

“So how is this MAP data shared with our parents? Is it shared in a way that they can understand and know how to apply these tools to their child’s daily learning?” Dorsey-Hollins said:

According to Parent Shield’s recommendations, school districts need to add a heavy dose of literacy instruction to traditional classroom instruction time. Combining MAP data with high-quality interventions and transparency for families will lead to a significant increase in reading, Dorsey-Hollins said.

Dorsey-Hollins acknowledges that the work can be challenging, but she hears from teachers who often have entire classrooms filled with students needing reading intervention. He said classroom education is the right time to develop students.

Interim Superintendent Karen MolinarPlan to deploy Fort Worth ISD Work of central government personnel The Parent Shield leader said communicating directly with students would go a long way to ensuring all students receive the interventions they deserve.

Fort Worth mom Quintana has seen her children’s attitudes toward reading change. When their children first started the intervention program, they thought books were boring. They loved reading it halfway through and thought it was fun.

They even brought books for their mother to read.

Quintana wanted to read the stories, but had trouble reading and writing.

Quintana moved to the United States from Mexico when he was 7 years old and had to learn English. He had difficulty in school because he had ADHD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. He did not know he had a developmental disorder until later in life.

“I didn’t know what was wrong with me then. “I couldn’t understand anything or hold anything in my brain,” Quintana said.

Growing up, Quintana was afraid to tell her teachers and even her mother about her learning difficulties.

“So I never got the help I needed,” Quintana said.

Once Quintana reached high school, school became very difficult. He left school in the 10th grade.

Quintana did not want his children to live a life like his. He wanted better.

His children can’t get enough of reading anymore. Even though Parent Shield’s program has ended, Quintana wants to make sure her kids keep the spark of reading alive.

“I don’t care if I have to drive as long as I can take my kids to learn something I can’t teach them,” he said.

Jacob Sanchez is the Fort Worth Report’s senior education reporter. Contact him at [email protected] or @_jacob_sanchez.

Matthew Sgroi is the education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at: [email protected] or @matthewsgroi1.

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