Shannon Harrison/Houston Public Media
Pictured are a student and teacher at Neff Early Learning Center in Houston.
Houston ISD is launching a new program next school year to support young students needing extra help developing reading skills.
On the district’s YouTube channel this week, Deputy Superintendent Kristen Hole described the program, called Kinder Bridge, as an “extra grade level” in between kindergarten and first grade that gives some students extra time to work on their reading skills.
“One of the things that we know about our young readers is that some students develop at different rates and our data shows that a student who is even just nine months or 12 months older than another student is more likely to know how to read in third grade, just because they’re older,” Hole said. “In Kinder Bridge, they’ll get some accelerated kindergarten [material] and some access to first grade all together in that extra year.”
Sign up for the Hello, Houston! daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.
The district says the Kinder Bridge pilot program, which is prompting concerns among some about its intentions and potential impacts on young students, will launch at all the newly dubbed “Future 2” elementary schools as well as at “select additional campuses.” The district did not provide a specific list.
Future 2 is a new concept led by state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles that was initially intended for two campuses and has since grown to nine. At those schools, starting with the 2026-27 academic year, the morning instruction will focus on traditional core subjects and the afternoon is dedicated to classes developing skills for an AI-driven world.
All HISD students take a literacy assessment in May, and Hole says the district will use that assessment to notify families if their student is struggling and needs extra support.
RELATED: Houston ISD to transform nine campuses into AI-focused schools
Alongside the Kinder Bridge program, HISD leaders plan to implement the following for the 2026-27 school year: accelerated “Science of Reading” instruction for students needing extra support, a summer reading-intensive program which includes 22 days of instruction and “ongoing interventions” designed to build strong reading foundations. District officials did not detail what those interventions would be.
HISD spokesperson Trey Serna said the district “continues to strengthen its focus on early literacy with the goal of making sure that every student is reading on grade level by the end of second grade.”
Hole explained the district’s push to ensure students are reading before third grade.
“[Students] don’t have that time and support to learn how to read past third grade,” Hole said. “So it’s really critical that before a student can go into third grade that they understand and know how to read, because it’ll impact the rest of their educational journey.”
Geared toward standardized testing?
Placido Gomez, an elected HISD trustee who has no decision-making power amid the Texas Education Agency’s ongoing intervention in the district, said he wants to see case studies showing where this approach has worked before.
“I’m open minded to the idea that retention is appropriate in certain contexts, but absent that research and case studies I’m tempted to think that the timing of the promotion standards, which is right before the grade level where standardized tests are introduced, is a little convenient.”
In third grade, students across the state take the STAAR exam, which is being replaced by three shorter tests under a law passed by state legislators last summer. The Texas Education Agency in part uses scores from the statewide exam to assess the performance of districts and schools and assign an accountability rating. The state can use accountability ratings to identify underperforming districts, in some cases using failing ratings to justify intervening like it did with HISD.
“[This plan] seems set up to make sure that students are ready for the third grade reading STAAR,” Gomez said. “I hope to see evidence from them that shows that it’s good for kids beyond passing that test and improving the schools’ and district’s accountability rating.”
An HISD news release says district leaders are also recommending a “second to third grade literacy promotion standard,” they say to ensure students are ready to move up a grade. Pending approval by HISD’s state-appointed board of managers, the change would take effect in the summer of 2028.
The district did not offer specifics about the plan.
Dominic Anthony Walsh/Houston Public Media
A protest of people reading books outside a Houston ISD board of managers meeting in 2023.
Libraries and literacy
Miles has faced criticism for several decisions he has made impacting libraries and reading in the district, with detractors saying he instead has focused on improving testing outcomes.
In the first year of the state takeover, Miles eliminated librarians at dozens of schools and converted libraries into multi-use spaces where misbehaving students could be disciplined. In 2024, the Houston Chronicle reported the district partnered with the artificial intelligence company Prof Jim Inc, which created more than 2,200 reading passages for HISD’s curriculum for students in third through 10th grades.
Local nonprofit Community Voices for Public Education (CVPE), a frequent critic of Miles and the state takeover, held a six-hour readathon in late April near Miles’ home to protest the lack of actual books students were reading in the district.
Ruth Kravetz, one of the founders of CVPE, said she has concerns over the pressure the early literacy program may add to young students who are often still adjusting to being in a classroom for the first time.
“Red-shirting a kid based on how they performed in kindergarten is putting a lot of pressure on a kid who should be in a grade where kids are learning to love, learning to imagine,” Kravetz said. “Kindergarten should be about learning to love school, learning to love their potential for knowing things and to dream big, and all the socialization stuff that’s necessary for kids who in some cases haven’t been in a school setting before.”
In an appearance on Houston Matters last October , Miles defended HISD student gains in reading under his leadership and the rise in accountability ratings for schools across the district.
He refuted criticism that the metrics of accountability had changed, which led some in the public to distrust the rise in ratings.
“At the end of the day, more kids can read at grade level,” Miles said. “We are much stronger on those metrics. I didn’t create them. I didn’t create the STAAR exam, but I can tell you this, if you can read at grade level, you’re going to pass the STAAR exam. If you can’t, you won’t.”