Carter in the classroom

‘Nation's Report Card' reveals no surprises, students are significantly behind

Fort Worth ISD says they are implementing plans for a path toward the future

The 'Nation's Report Card' came out Wednesday. That's the name given to a look at how students across the country are doing on standardized tests. The data this year is much the same as it's been since the pandemic-- flat, with little improvement year to year.

Let's look at Texas fourth graders; 43% of them, almost half, are not reading at a basic level. In eighth grade, 39% of students are not at the most basic reading level for their age group. 

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"This doesn't come as a huge surprise, but it comes as a big disappointment as well, and where we are at seeing the declines in reading, in particular, the continue following the national trend on declines in fourth and eighth-grade reading, is really disappointing," said Gabe Grantham, who studies education for Texas 2036, a group focused on helping Texas grow by its bicentennial.

"We can look in the past and say, 'Well, this doesn't work, so we got to throw it away.' Like, I don't know. We have to. We have to meet the moment where we're at right now," he added.

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Fort Worth ISD said that's where they are, implementing plans to look at where students are and a path toward the future.

"Education is a lot more complex than that, and it is systems-level work. Our teachers in the classroom have the biggest influence on student outcomes, and they're doing the hard work every day, but our systems are our priorities," said Nancy Stickel.

Stickel is a 15-year Fort Worth ISD principal turned consultant turned administrator. The district hired her back in November to help dig into data and develop plans to innovate and improve. She said the information on this report card is dated, and they're well into a turnaround plan. 

"People want a quick fix. They want a quick win. They think they can buy a program in a box that'll be magical and fix everything for students. Education is a lot more complex than that."

The quick fix has been "the way" nationwide. Fort Worth included saying goodbye to superintendents for not delivering fast enough. Texas does so much so well but stays in the bottom half of the nation in teaching kids. Even the experts said getting us to the top of the list with Massachusetts and Connecticut is beyond difficult.

"We want to be in this situation as a country or as a nation right now, so it really is looking at all of those elements and being able to really design and take those bold actions with that laser focus for our kids here in Fort Worth, and getting them exactly what they need," Stickel said.

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