'Our kids can't read': Fort Worth leaders create literacy advocacy group
Fort Worth leaders launch literacy group
Only 35 percent of kids in Fort Worth schools are meeting grade-level expectations, according to Mayor Mattie Parker.
FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth city and county leaders, along with educators, have joined forces to focus on child literacy.
The goal is to improve the reading levels of the district's students.
Fort Worth Students First
Mayor Mattie Parker held an event to announce the newly-created literacy advocacy group Fort Worth Students First.
Elected officials, past and present, along with civic and community leaders, voiced new expectations for involvement to support students mainly within Fort Worth ISD. For years, the district has been part of an ongoing struggle to improve overall achievement.
Mayor calls Fort Worth ISD’s STAAR test results ‘unacceptable’
In 2024, Fort Worth ISD students scored 11 percentage points lower than Dallas ISD students on the STAAR test. Mayor Mattie Parker called the stats "unacceptable" and is demanding trustees take action.
Only 35 percent of kids in Fort Worth schools are meeting grade-level expectations, and those numbers have gone down in the last year, according to Parker.
The mayor called it a "crisis."
Fort Worth Students First will work to help mitigate obstacles many families face that can adversely impact student achievement, like crime, poverty and homelessness.
The group is calling for volunteers to take part in activities like reading a book to students at a neighborhood school or library.
What they're saying:
"Our kids can't read," said Mayor Mattie Parker. "Remember that. Our kids can't freakin' read."
"Volunteer to read in a school and be consistent with that volunteering because kids need the consistency at school that they may not have in their home," said Tobi Jackson, FWISD Board Member.
"80% of those folks that are incarcerated today in our jails are functionally illiterate. 80% in the juvenile justice system are illiterate. And you are more than five times more likely to be arrested in your lifetime if you cannot read,"said County Commissioner Manny Ramirez, an education advocate and former police officer.
"The business community has got to start beating the drum and parents have to really beat the drum. I may not know how to do this for my child, but I’m going to do something," said Former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.
The Source: Information in this article comes from an event to announce Fort Worth Students First on Friday, April 4.