Shining a light on early literacy: the urgent need for transparency and support in Texas

Both teachers and parents need to know where students stand at every step of their journey. This is especially important while students are developing early literacy skills. Meeting grade-level reading expectations at the end of third grade is a key milestone in a student’s educational journey; only one out of every five students who did not meet grade level reading expectations in 2019 was sufficiently supported to catch back up by sixth grade.

Unfortunately, Texas currently lacks visibility into students' progress toward this crucial benchmark in first and second grade, preventing early intervention, targeted student supports, and other tools that could be used to  accelerate learning. We've produced this short video to illustrate the need for more transparency and identify a few of the most powerful tools we could use to improve student outcomes.  

Over 90% of Texas voters support “additional evidence-based support to students struggling to read” and even more support "parents having more visibility into students’ academic growth and foundational skills development between kindergarten and third grade," according to polling from Ragnar Research Partners.  

Thankfully, Texas lawmakers have recognized the urgent need for this additional transparency and support. Texas House Bill 123 provides significant new funding for evidence-based literacy interventions, informed by universal literacy screeners to be implemented in first and second grade, where we currently lack statewide insights. Many of our peer states such as Louisiana and Mississippi have already implemented similar strategies and have seen significant gains in student achievement on the NAEP as a result.

As Commit's Managing Director of Early Matters Dallas Amber Shields recently put it in a conversation with the Dallas Morning News editorial board: “We must take immediate, decisive action to tackle the literacy crisis head-on.” Thankfully, House Bill 123 promises to do just that.

Want to learn more about how to improve early literacy across Texas? Read our recent one-pager on the topic here.