TEXAS — Extra money is heading into the pockets of some parents of third graders next school year, but only if their child did not pass the reading STAAR test.
Statewide, that’s about 100,000 third graders. The money will only be able to be used to hire a reading tutor.
The Joe family is not new to extra help with reading. Soon-to-be fourth grader Aleyna Joe sees a reading tutor regularly in East Dallas.
“Our journey has been a little bit different because she was in a bilingual education. We noticed she was learning Spanish and reading faster and better in Spanish than she was in English,” said Tiffany Joe, Aleyna’s mom. “Having a professional that’s really specialized in reading also listen to your child takes a little bit of weight off of you to be sitting there deciding, ‘Are they having trouble? Are they not having trouble?’”
The families of students who did not pass the STAAR reading exam will soon be able to apply for extra money for private tutoring through a new portal launched by the Texas Education Agency called Parent Access to Supplemental Supports (PASS).
For Christine Duffy, signing up her tutoring business, Literacy Love, to accept the state funding was a no-brainer.
“We want to be able to support the community — everybody. There’s various schools in East Dallas that don’t have the same support that some other schools have, so I feel like it’s important to be available for all,” said Duffy.
The state will give $400 for tutoring to students who did not meet grade level requirements in the third grade STAAR exam, a pivotal year for reading.
“In third grade, you’re no longer learning how to read. You’re mostly reading to learn,” said Duffy.
According to state data, one in four third graders did not meet grade level on this year’s reading exam.
Spectrum News looked at state data to see how some of Texas’ largest school districts fared in reading.
San Antonio ISD had more than 40% of its third graders fail to meet reading requirements on the STAAR. In Fort Worth, 35% did not meet it. Nearly 30% in Dallas and Houston, and 23% in Austin did not pass the state reading requirements last year.
Those kids not meeting grade level are why Duffy says she tutors.
“I just fell in love with the idea of teaching people how to read because if you can’t read, there’s really not much for you to do in this world,” said Duffy. “Everything requires reading.”
Several books and a lot of work later, Aleyna’s reading has certainly improved.
“When we came here, she felt more confident, and I noticed she started picking up more books on her own,” said Tiffany Joe. “She asked for a Kindle for Christmas.”
Maybe more importantly, Aleyna said she’s enjoying reading now, too.
“I think it helped me read and made me wanna read more,” said Aleyna Joe.