Trenace Dorsey-Hollins asked why her daughter received "emerging" (the lowest level) on her first-grade report card for a skill she'd learned in kindergarten. The teacher "told me that she gave all the students in her class the same grade for the first six weeks to show growth in the second six-week period."
From inaccurate report cards to parents not having full access to their child's test data, Fort Worth schools are misleading parents, writes Dorsey-Collins on The Grade.
When her younger daughter, who's non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, was about to start school, Dorsey-Collins had to make multiple phone calls to find out which school she'd attend. The district had decided on special-education placements, but hadn't gotten around to telling parents.
Dorsey-Collins founded Parent Shield Fort Worth to organize and inform parents and pressure the school district.
When the Forth Worth district "bragged about providing SAT tutoring at every high school," she called high schools for the details. It turned out not a single high school could confirm they offered SAT tutoring.
She contacted the local press and posted a Facebook video. Within 24 hours, district administrators called to say the tutoring would be provided.
Parent Shield is helping parents figure out their children's reading level, wrote Dang Le in the Forth Worth Report at the start of the school year. Only 44 percent of Forth Worth students are reading at grade level, but parents don't always know how far their children have fallen behind.
Maria Gonzalez's 8-year-old daughter got perfect scores and glowing reports from her teachers, she told Le. But she couldn't read.
Melony Watson noticed her daughter's reading problems, but was told it was normal for students who started during the pandemic to struggle. Her daughter made the A-B honor roll. In fourth grade, still unable to read, she was diagnosed with dyslexia. “How did you push my baby through three grades and she can’t read — and no one noticed that she was dyslexic?” Watson said.
In July, Parent Shield Fort Worth invited parents to literacy assessments. Thirty percent of participating parents said their child was reading below grade level; 64 percent were below grade level.