Sound it out.
Ph-o-n-i-c-s.
You use the fundamental skill every day.
Fort Worth ISD students, however, are not receiving enough instruction to master phonics, district officials said. As part of a wide-sweeping district restructuring, phonics lessons will be strengthened starting in the 2025-26 school year through the addition of a supplemental program.
“We must have phonics in our K-2 space,” Superintendent Karen Molinar said during a March 25 school board meeting.
Phonics is the understanding of how letters represent sounds and how to break down words while reading and put them together when writing.
Simply put: You know how the letter C sounds in the word cat, and you merge the sounds of the letters c-a-t to read it.
What’s currently in use?
Decades of research found phonics instruction to be the most effective way for children first learning how to read to begin breaking down words.
Right now, Fort Worth ISD uses a reading curriculum called Amplify. The Texas Education Agency considers it a high-quality instructional material.
“Right now, do we have any programs for phonics?” trustee Anael Luebanos asked the superintendent.
“Our current program has a phonics piece to it, but it’s not explicit where it’s a different phonics program,” Molinar said.
Phonics-based improvements in other states
School districts growing their reading rates added a separate phonics program on top of their general reading curriculums, the superintendent said.
Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama are examples.
The trio of states had some of the lowest reading rates in the nation. Following reading reform laws emphasizing phonics, the states saw gains and climbed in the rankings.
The laws align with what is called the science of reading, a body of research built over the last 50 years about how the brain learns to read.
Science of reading in Texas
Texas has had science of reading-supported laws since 2019.
House Bill 3, better known for its overhaul of school finance, featured requirements for a science of teaching reading certification exam and established Texas Reading Academies, mandatory literacy training for every kindergarten to third-grade teacher and principal.
However, the rollout of HB 3 has been inconsistent across the state, with much of it left up to school districts to interpret, according to the George W. Bush Institute. Mississippi and Louisiana adopted a more comprehensive approach in supporting the introduction of their science of reading laws.
Molinar attributed part of Fort Worth ISD’s reading instruction issues to the fact that not every teacher — whether they’re new, alternatively certified or even long-term substitutes — goes through the reading academies.
A structured phonics program will emphasize training, she said.
“ We’ll have professional development as well as coaching to ensure effective rollout for that,” Molinar said, adding administration is working on summer training plans and determining how to best use professional development days during the new school year.
‘Good teaching practices’
Another piece of the phonics plans? Addressing dyslexia.
Administration is searching for a new elementary dyslexia program. Currently, the district uses a program from Neuhaus Education Center.
“We need to see what other districts are using to accelerate their students,” Molinar said.
The new dyslexia program will be twofold. It will help students with dyslexia. And it will help students behind grade level.
“Because some dyslexia programs that are being used statewide are also good teaching practices,” Molinar said.
Jacob Sanchez is a senior education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
