The Fort Worth Literacy Partnership is unveiling a data dashboard as public school students across the state take the 2017 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness Reading exam this week.

STAAR are a series of state-mandated standardized tests used in Texas public primary and secondary schools to assess a student’s achievements and knowledge attained in their grade level.

The Fort Worth Literacy Partnership is a privately-funded effort by the Fort Worth ISD, the city of Fort Worth, as well as business, education, philanthropic, and nonprofit leaders intended to significantly increase early childhood reading achievement.

It was formed to coordinate cross-sector efforts to ensure that 100 percent of third-graders are reading on grade level by 2025.

THE STAAR DATA DASHBOARD IS FREE

The new dashboard is accessible free of charge and allows users to track third-grade reading performance over time, by elementary school campus, and high school pyramid — the group of feeder schools to a particular high school, according to a release. It can be viewed at the ReadFortWorth.org website.

Third grade is important because it is the point in time when children must be reading to learn, and not just learning to read, if they are going to have the best chance at continued academic success, the release said.

“Already this year, the Fort Worth community has made incredible investments in early childhood literacy. Those investments are beginning to pay off for our children.”
Kent Scribner

The Fort Worth ISD is one of the largest districts in Texas, with more than 86,000 students in 83 elementary schools, 29 middle schools and sixth-grade centers, 18 high schools, and 16 other campuses.

Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Dr. Kent Scribner said that in 2016, three of every 10 FWISD third-graders scored at the “final recommended” level on the STAAR reading exam.

“Already this year, the Fort Worth community has made incredible investments in early childhood literacy. Those investments are beginning to pay off for our children,” Scribner said.

Users of the Data Dashboard can view STAAR Reading results from 2012 to 2016 that can be filtered by economic status, ethnicity, and language for the Fort Worth school district, high school pyramids, and individual elementary campuses.

The partnership also announced enhanced summer learning opportunities that will be available to young children in Fort Worth, including a citywide undertaking to engage young children and families in literacy activities through the “Worth Reading” campaign of the Fort Worth Library.

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price stressed the importance of the reading programs.

“To ensure our success is sustained, education, especially for our youngest citizens must be elevated.”
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price

“To ensure our success is sustained, education, especially for our youngest citizens must be elevated,” Price said in the release.

“Part of solving this equation, means making sure that every child has the resources and support he or she needs to become a proficient reader by third grade,” she said.

Here is an example of the data available on the Fort Worth Literacy Partnership’s STAAR Reading Data Dashboard.

Fort Worth ISD students listen to district Superintendent Kent Scribner. [Photo via FWISD video]

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