Fort Worth ISD reveals new lesson structures to help improve academic performance

Yahoo

21-05-2025

As students in the Fort Worth Independent School District wrap up their last week of school, Superintendent Karen Molinar revealed details about how classroom lessons will be structured upon their return to school in the fall.
Molinar gave a presentation to the school board on Tuesday, May 20, of Fort Worth ISD's new instructional framework that will go into effect in the 2025-26 school year for literacy and math. The framework is one of the components of the district's effort to turn around its stagnant academic performance. The goal is to promote consistency in the classroom and reduce planning time for teachers while keeping their autonomy intact.
Beyond literacy and math, the framework will apply to all subjects for kindergarten through eighth grade, Molinar said. A framework for high school lessons is in the works.
Molinar explained in-depth the three parts of the instructional framework: first teach; demonstration of learning; and reteach and challenge. First teach, the initial layer of instruction known as tier one instruction, includes addressing gaps students have in prerequisite skills, adjusting what students are learning or how they're learning it, and using techniques that allow students to participate and share their thinking during a lesson.
'Regardless of where they come in at, that first teach always has to be at grade level. If they're reading on a second-grade level, but they're in the third grade, they're always going to receive that third-grade instruction,' Molinar said.
The second part, demonstration of learning, consists of no more than five questions that are aligned with the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, exam to gauge what students took away from the lesson.
The final reteach and challenge block involves grouping students based on how they performed with their demonstration of learning to receive additional support if needed. Students who 'meet' or 'master' the material do enrichment activities to further their learning.
District officials will provide teachers with lesson slide decks and questions for the demonstrations of learning to be used as guides during class time. The slide decks and lesson materials will be linked together in one place through an online portal.
'The lesson planning is done for the teachers. The delivery is the autonomy of the teacher,' Molinar said. 'Teachers are now going to be able to plan weeks in advance and really be able to adjust.'
Molinar also presented a funding overview for various options of reading and math curriculum approved by the State Board of Education, which included the Bluebonnet Learning curriculum. Bluebonnet's literacy curriculum has sparked controversy for its Bible-infused reading materials.
Molinar focused on the math portion of the Bluebonnet curriculum, including a presentation slide with bullet points explaining why it was 'a better choice for Fort Worth ISD.' Among the examples she mentioned were its instructional support for teachers, emergent bilingual students and students who previously have struggled with math. It also replicates the district's current curriculum, Eureka Math and Carnegie Learning, so teachers won't have to learn an entirely new curriculum.
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The school board approved the adoption and roughly $2 million purchase of the Bluebonnet Learning math curriculum later on in the meeting, in an 8-0 vote without discussion. School board member Wallace Bridges was absent.
'If there's a better resource for our students, and we're getting funding from the state, it's our obligation to put that in front of them and to make sure our teachers have the best curriculum and the best resources for our students,' Molinar said.
Molinar also shared the district's update for dyslexia screening, which includes adding another screening for seventh-grade students. When students are taking their beginning-of-the-year MAP test, middle schools will do screening for seventh-graders identified by the district. By the end of the first six weeks of school, or Sept. 19, families will be given a data analysis of their child's screening with a literacy support plan. Students suspected of having dyslexia, or other disabilities under the umbrella of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, will be evaluated by district staff within 45 school days of staff receiving parental consent to do the evaluation.