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Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District administrators told trustees during a study session Thursday, May 14, that early literacy gains in first and second grade could help the district move toward its long-range third grade reading goals, though officials said writing instruction and staffing remain major challenges.
During the meeting, district staff presented updated progress measures tied to the board’s goal of increasing the percentage of third graders meeting STAAR reading standards from 46% in 2025 to 64% by 2030.
District data showed first grade students meeting sentence reading fluency benchmarks increased from 61% last year to 65% this spring, surpassing the district’s annual target. Second grade students finished the year at 62% proficiency, matching last year’s results after beginning the year below the prior cohort.
Administrators pointed to gains among special populations. First grade emergent bilingual students increased from 60% to 70%, while first grade special education students improved from 38% to 49%, according to district data presented.
“We want to highlight the hard work going on with our special populations groups,” Assistant Superintendent Kim Holcomb said.
At the same time, administrators said the district continues facing challenges tied to staffing and student writing performance.
Holcomb told trustees that roughly one-third of kindergarten through second grade teachers this year were either new to the profession or new to their grade levels.
“With that, as you know, comes very much a lot of support for learning standards, learning how to teach, learning how to manage classrooms, learning how to lesson plan,” Holcomb said.
District officials said writing will play a major role in whether students meet the district’s long-term reading goals, particularly as the state places greater emphasis on extended written responses on STAAR exams.
“If we don’t master writing, we’re probably going to struggle for meeting that goal every year,” Holcomb said.
Administrators said recent STAAR practice prompts required students to compare multiple texts and write more complex responses than earlier assessments. District staff also said teachers are receiving additional training on grading essays and teaching extended constructed responses, known as ECRs.
To improve literacy outcomes, district leaders outlined several instructional strategies implemented this year, including structured literacy instruction aligned with science of reading practices, expanded coaching support and targeted intervention programs.
Briannah Burrell, the district’s director of elementary language arts, said teachers are now using a more consistent literacy framework focused on foundational skills such as phonics, decoding and sentence fluency.
“It’s a routine that teachers can follow every single day,” Burrell said.
District officials described a “lab schools” initiative in which selected campuses receive intensive coaching and classroom walkthroughs focused on reading instruction. Five campuses participated this year after applying for the program.
“What we’ve done with them is we’ve created walkthrough systems and coaching routines,” Burrell said. “We’re really pulling the campus leadership together.”
Staff members also discussed the district’s use of Amira, an artificial intelligence-supported reading intervention platform formerly known as Istation. Administrators said the program helps students practice reading fluency in both English and Spanish while giving teachers intervention data tied to classroom instruction.
“What we noticed is that for all of our grades from kindergarten through fifth grade, we saw growth from beginning and end of the year on all foundational skills,” Burrell said.
Trustees asked how the district plans to ensure literacy strategies are implemented consistently across campuses and how progress will continue to be monitored throughout the school year.
Trustee Kim Brady praised the district’s gains among special populations but questioned why some campuses were not consistently using lesson internalization practices designed to improve instruction.
“So the end goal would be that everybody’s using it consistently,” Brady said.
District leaders said continued improvement in foundational reading and writing skills will be critical as CFBISD works toward its 2030 literacy targets.
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