{"id":374125,"date":"2026-06-25T06:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T06:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/374125\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T06:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T06:48:14","slug":"fresno-unified-kindergarteners-exceed-early-literacy-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/374125\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Unified kindergarteners exceed early literacy goals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The youngest learners at Fresno Unified surpassed their early literacy goals, the district announced.<\/p>\n<p>Latest testing results show that 70% of Fresno Unified\u2019s kindergarteners \u2014 3,074 students out of 4,364  \u2014 have achieved mastery in foundational literacy skills measured by a grade-level assessment, exceeding the 62.5% target the district set for June 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe results,\u201d the school district said in a news release, \u201cmean more students are on track to be proficient readers by the end of third grade, and first-grade teachers will be able to accelerate learning without having to repeat and reteach past skills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This marks the first major victory for Superintendent Misty Her, who <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/news\/local\/education-lab\/article305086776.html\">took the helm<\/a> of the state\u2019s third-largest school district in April 2025 and outlined  plans to turn around Fresno Unified\u2019s long-standing academic underperformance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese results reflect the incredible work happening every day in our classrooms,\u201d Her said. \u201cWhen students build strong literacy skills in kindergarten, they are better prepared to thrive academically and graduate ready to pursue the opportunities they choose for their future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/news\/local\/education-lab\/article299065580.html\">four goals<\/a> aimed at raising student literacy and the percentage of college- and career-ready graduates, two focus on early literacy and literacy intervention. Each of the goals came with interim benchmarks designed to assess whether Fresno Unified is on track to reverse student underperformance by June 2030.<\/p>\n<p>There are a total of four interim benchmarks for June 2026. Besides kindergartners meeting their goals, the school district has not yet released this school year\u2019s data for the other three targets, which focus on assessing first-graders, third- through sixth-graders, and seventh- through eighth-graders\u2019 stretch growth in literacy.<\/p>\n<p>AJ Kato, the district\u2019s spokesperson, said the data will be presented to the school board during the fall semester. The third- through sixth-graders\u2019 monitoring report is scheduled for the Aug. 26 meeting, and the seventh- through eighth-graders\u2019 data will be discussed at the Dec. 9 meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/news\/local\/education-lab\/article314521565.html\">available data from the last school year<\/a>, however, shows that elementary students were not making enough progress towards achieving their goals.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024-25 school year, 46% of first-graders met their stretch growth target in the iReady diagnostic assessment. While the figure fell 1.5% short of the spring 2025 target, it represented an increase of 5 percentage points  compared to spring 2024. The district aims to reach 54% by June 2026.<\/p>\n<p>For literacy intervention, only 28% of identified third- to sixth-grade students met their stretch growth goal on iReady by June last year, showing a slight improvement from the 26% baseline recorded in spring 2024. The figure was 12.5% lower than its Spring 2025 target. The district has set a 55% goal for this June.<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Fresno Bee<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/profile\/282493138\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782370094_414_leqi zhong_profile photo.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Leqi Zhong\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/profile\/282493138\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leqi Zhong<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Leqi Zhong is the Clovis accountability\/enterprise reporter for The Bee. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master\u2019s degree in journalism. She joined The Bee in 2023 as an education reporter. Leqi grew up in China and is native in Cantonese and Mandarin.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The youngest learners at Fresno Unified surpassed their early literacy goals, the district announced. Latest testing results show&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-374125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}