Dear Read Fort Worth Community:
For the past four years, Read Fort Worth has existed as a community collaborative focused on ensuring that every child can read on grade level by the end of third grade. Our mission and our passion remain the same, even as the world around us has changed. We are focused on supporting students within our community, and we are committed to providing agencies that work with our students the tools to meet this early literacy goal.
From the beginning, Mayor Price, Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Scribner, and key business leaders coalesced around Read Fort Worth’s goal of third grade reading, which data has shown to be a strong predictor of future success. The support of these key groups has allowed Read Fort Worth to illuminate data across Fort Worth ISD’s 82 elementary school campuses, gather community input, co-developsolutions with partners, and lift up success stories across our community – the equation to how we make progress on our goal.
Moving the Needle on Early Literacy: Our Progress to Date
Read Fort Worth is, at its heart, a product of and a response to our community’s desire for a better life for all students. How we’ve made progress towards this vision is best illustrated through examples of our work over the last year:
Tackling Chronic Absenteeism: We tracked how chronic absenteeism negatively affected student outcomes, leading us to ask parents what solutions to implement that could boost school attendance.
Filling the Literacy Resource Gap:We found a correlation between a lack of student achievement and fewer books in classroom libraries. Read Fort Worth worked with Fort Worth ISD to provide 130,000 culturally relevant books to every elementary school, and then the Fort Worth Public Library made sure the same titles were available across the public library system.
Boosting Summer Reading: Read Fort Worth works with local summer programs to incorporate daily literacy instruction into their schedules, helping to ensure all students have access to enriching literacy activities each summer.
COVID-19 Response for All Families: The challenges of new health directives resulting in school closures has dramatically changed the context in which we educate students. With Fort Worth ISD shifting to remote learning and many families in our community lacking Internet access, Read Fort Worth, with AT&T, Facebook and Fort Worth ISD, provided 6,000 mobile hot spot devices at no-cost to the families that needed them most.
Advocating for Strategic Teacher & Principal Compensation:The Read Fort Worth Executive Council is advocating for a strategic teacher and principal compensation plan that recognizes best practices and promotes equity to ensure that our Rock Star teachers and school leaders continue to serve our students and be fairly rewarded for it.
What is Next?
The most common question we get asked at Read Fort Worth is: How can I help? Read Fort Worth is a community-wide initiative. Our work is your work, and we are committed to carrying forth this critical goal for students in Fort Worth. We will continue to surface projects that improve the trajectory for our students. In the short-term, we are asking for two things:
For Families | Take 2 minutes and sign-up for FREE Best Place for Kids Texts that bring you developmentally appropriate tips for young children filtered by age and zip code.
Read Fort Worth is assisting Fort Worth ISD and Best Place for Kids to offer families free community resources from trusted local partners on topics ranging from mobile food locations, health clinics, mental health services, and fun family events! Text “BestPlace4Kids” to 274448 to start receiving texts that support your child’s growth today!
For Community Members | Donate to Read Fort Worth’s DRIVE Learning Anywhere Campaign! For every $50.00 donated, you purchase one student the digital learning tools they need to join their teachers and classmates in virtual classrooms. Thanks to the generosity of a local donor, all donations for the next three weeks are matched $1 for $1 – doubling your donation to this critical need. Read Fort Worth launched the DRIVE Learning Anywhere Campaign to raise $850,000 to purchase 6,000 hotspot devices complemented with best practices in virtual learning supports for families that maximize the academic impact of these digital tools. Facebook’s lead gift of $500,000 gets us nearly 60% to our goal. Read Fort Worth turns to YOU to raise the remaining $350,000.
The best news is that the best is yet to come. Read Fort Worth is just getting started, and we look forward to continuing to meet the needs of our community. Want to know more? You can contact us anytime at contactus@readfortworth.com.
Thank you for your continued support and assistance to make our community the best in Texas.