Fort Worth Literacy Partnership Launches Third-Grade Reading Data Dashboard, 2017 Summer Learning opportunities for children
Click to download Data Dashboard b-roll.
May 9, 2017 – FORT WORTH, Texas — The Fort Worth Literacy Partnership is rolling out a new data dashboard as students across Texas take the 2017 STAAR Reading exam this week. The dashboard is accessible at no cost via www.ReadFortWorth.org/dashboard, allows users to easily track third-grade reading performance over time, by elementary school campus school and high school pyramid.
The Literacy Partnership also announced enhanced Summer 2017 learning opportunities that will be accessible to young children across Fort Worth. This includes a citywide effort to engage young children and families in literacy activities with the Fort Worth Library’s “Worth Reading” campaign.
A key component of the Summer Learning effort will be the new “Summer Scholars” program, a free, six-week literacy camp offered by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Fort Worth and Girls Inc. of Tarrant County for young readers nominated by Maude Logan, Maudrie Walton and Sunrise McMillan elementary schools. The goal of this program is to help elementary students maintain and gain literacy skills during the summer break.
The initiatives are part of an innovative, collective impact effort formed by the City of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Independent School District, business, education, philanthropic and nonprofit leaders to dramatically increase early childhood reading achievement. Third grade is the
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point in time when children must be reading to learn – not learning to read – for the best chance at continued academic success. The work supports the Fort Worth Independent School District’s 100×25 FWTX Initiative.
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, a co-founder of the Partnership, has urged that youth programs supported by the city include a literacy component.
Noting the importance of these efforts, Mayor Price said, “Fort Worth is known worldwide as a vibrant city with a high quality of life and economic vitality. To ensure our success is sustained, education, especially for our youngest citizens must be elevated,” Price said. “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.”
Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Dr. Kent Scribner has been an advocate of collective impact work in Fort Worth to drive reading achievement. In 2016, only three of every 10 Fort Worth ISD third-graders scored at the “final recommended” level on the Texas 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. “This work will take all of us pushing together toward the 100×25 goal. Fort Worth can do this.”
The Summer Learning efforts were shaped by a Collaborative Action Network led by Fort Worth Library Director Gleniece Robinson and LaToya Stewart, United Way of Tarrant County’s vice president for community development – education. More detail is available at www.ReadFortWorth.org/summer-learning-can/ .
The Data Dashboard, available online at www.ReadFortWorth.org/Dashboard, provides views of STAAR Reading testing results from 2012 to 2016 that can be filtered by ethnicity, economic status and language status for the Fort Worth school district, high school pyramids and individual elementary campuses.
ABOUT THE FORT WORTH LITERACY PARTNERSHIP
The Fort Worth Literacy Partnership is the privately-funded, locally-controlled backbone organization formed to coordinate cross-sector, collective impact efforts to ensure that 100 percent of third-graders are reading on grade level by 2025. The Partnership exists to provide unique, actionable data; to organize and align partners under the shared 100×25 goal; to develop strategies for significant improvement; and to communicate best practices and drive results. For more information, please visit www.ReadFortWorth.org .