Superintendent Karen Molinar stood before Fort Worth ISD trustees June 24 with a familiar message: The district’s work on literacy is far from over.
Even as 2025 reading scores exceeded expectations — and with the Texas Education Agency monitoring closely — Molinar stressed the need for continued urgency.
That call for action helped fuel the board’s 7-2 vote to adopt a new phonics program aimed at strengthening foundational reading skills across kindergarten through third grade. The decision will bring Bluebonnet Learning’s phonics program into Fort Worth ISD classrooms beginning this fall, a move district leaders said will build on recent gains while addressing gaps that remain.
Trustees Wallace Bridges and Camille Rodriguez voted against the curriculum’s adoption.
The nearly $1 million purchase — funded through the state — includes English and Spanish phonics materials and will extend phonics instruction through third grade.
“We have to strengthen that early literacy foundation and we know that we needed an additional phonics program,” Molinar said.
What is phonics reading method?
Phonics is a method of teaching reading that helps students connect letters to sounds. By learning these relationships, children can “sound out” and decode unfamiliar words.
For example, in the word cat, students learn that the letter c makes a /k/ sound, a makes a short /a/ sound, and t makes a /t/ sound — blending together to form cat.
Phonics instruction focuses on letter recognition, letter-sound associations, blending sounds to form words and common spelling patterns. Phonics is a core part of the “science of reading,” an evidence-based approach that emphasizes teaching children how written language maps to spoken sounds.
She emphasized that the purchase covers only the phonics component of Bluebonnet, not its optional reading lessons that feature Bible stories.
The program’s name alone sparked debate.
Bridges and Rodriguez raised concerns voiced by constituents that Bluebonnet’s materials could introduce religious references into classrooms.
“There’s been a lot of concern about the Bluebonnet material — the feeling that we’re bringing in some type of religious material for students,” Bridges said. “How does that work if I’m a parent, and I’m a Muslim and I don’t really support that?”
Deputy Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury addressed those concerns directly.
“The skills component we are adopting today has nothing to do with any of that,” Choudhury said. “It is phonics — aligned to the science of reading — and has no religious references. The knowledge component, where some of those references exist, we are not adopting.”
About 2% of Bluebonnet’s knowledge lessons statewide contain religious references, he said, but Fort Worth ISD’s adoption excludes that portion.
“I have the same concerns,” Rodriguez said. “I will not be supporting this.”
Other trustees appreciated the program’s alignment with district needs.
“I love that this has a Spanish component,” trustee Anael Luebanos told Molinar and Choudhury. “Thank you very much for including that and making sure the majority of our students will be able to use it.”
The phonics adoption comes after months of internal review and teacher feedback, Molinar said. She described the shift as critical for helping students who missed strong early phonics instruction.
The new program is part of Fort Worth ISD’s broader effort to standardize instructional practices and accelerate literacy gains. Early literacy scores saw improvements during the 2024-25 school year, but Molinar stressed the district must not slow down.
“Every percentage point matters when we’re closing that achievement gap for our subgroups,” she said. “When we can find savings, it needs to go back into literacy.”
By choosing Bluebonnet’s phonics program, district officials said, Fort Worth ISD can leverage state instructional materials funding — a decision that saves about $355,000 compared to the district’s original phonics plan, which would have required separate purchases for English and Spanish resources and did not extend through third grade.
The move also follows Fort Worth ISD’s May adoption of Bluebonnet Learning’s math curriculum, a decision tied to securing additional state funding. The State Board of Education approved Bluebonnet’s full curriculum in fall 2024, a package that drew debate for its inclusion of Bible stories.
Teacher training on the new program will begin this summer, with classroom use set to start in August.
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1.
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