{"id":446553,"date":"2026-08-28T22:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T22:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446553\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T22:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T22:26:18","slug":"fresno-unified-students-miss-annual-literacy-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446553\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Unified students miss annual literacy targets"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published by Fresnoland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fresno Unified students missed new literacy target goals, but Superintendent Misty Her insisted during her school board presentation Wednesday that schools still are moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n

The results announced Wednesday from small samples of student iReady scores appear to be in line with the district\u2019s latest SBAC scores released earlier this month that also showed test scores climbing but at a slower pace.<\/p>\n

Early literacy scores were 5.3% off, Her said. About 52% of the sampled test scores met proficiency standards, short of the district\u2019s target goal of 58.7%. The district\u2019s overall goal is to increase its early literacy proficiency rate to 80% by the summer of 2030.<\/p>\n

iReady is a digital assessment that Fresno Unified uses to test students on English Language Arts. iReady assessments have faced scrutiny and criticism over the years.<\/a><\/p>\n

Her said that while the district didn\u2019t meet its literacy goal, strategies and tools to help educators share best practices, receive professional development and identify areas of need for student support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to remind the board and community that at the end of last year, we exceeded our kindergarten foundational skills assessment target of 62.5%, with 70% of our kindergartners meeting their foundational skills,\u201d Her said, adding, \u201cso we expect that our fall administration of iReady to reflect higher results in first grade, based on where last year\u2019s kindergarten students were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of 66 elementary schools, 22 schools were on track with the district\u2019s early literacy target while 44 schools fell short of the district goal. In the district\u2019s annual plan for the current school year, it notes having a future target of 64% by June of 2027, 69% by June of 2028, 74% by June of 2029 and 80% by June of 2030.<\/p>\n

When broken down to the school site level, Muir Elementary achieved the highest percentage of literacy proficiency among its first graders, clocking in at 88.6% out of 44 students tested. Columbia Elementary achieved the lowest rate for the target time frame with a rate of 25% out of 72 students tested.<\/p>\n

Her\u2019s presentation also included results for the Spanish version of the iReady results, with Burroughs and Calwa both achieving proficiency rates of 100% for 43 and 32 students tested, respectively. According to the district, Calwa Elementary is Spanish Dual Language Immersion (DLI) site where 1st grade students 90% of instruction in Spanish and 10% in English.<\/p>\n

While two thirds of schools missed the district\u2019s annual literacy target, Her\u2019s presentation emphasized that the district\u2019s efforts to pick up momentum now that its plans through 2030 have been outlined through a strategic plan and annual plans.<\/p>\n

Her also highlighted Calwa Elementary, whom she noted improved its first grade iReady proficiency rates from 50% in 2024-25 to 64.5% last year and increased overall SBAC ELA proficiency from 24.6% to 45.2% in the last year alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teachers are the secret sauce, they believe that all kids can learn at high levels and they are committed to improving their practices,\u201d said Antonio Sanchez, principal of Calwa Elementary.<\/p>\n

Prop. 28 funding for arts and music<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s board meeting also presented the district\u2019s funding from Proposition 28, state funds that are used to employ staff and acquire materials for arts education programs. Prop. 28 funds are available to districts for three years after being awarded.<\/p>\n

According to a district presentation, FUSD has hired 57.3 full-time equivalent positions since 2023 and seeks to hire up to 65 full-time positions using Prop. 28 funding.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Fresno Unified reported spending $8.8 million on staffing during the 2025-26 school year and $10.4 million on materials, which included spending from 2023-24 funds.<\/p>\n

For the 2026-27 school year, FUSD is estimating an allocation of $13,796,650, with $8.9 million of that going into staffing alone. $1.8 million and $8.1 million in funds are rolling over from the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, respectively.<\/p>\n

Pesticide use around Fresno schools<\/p>\n

A Fresno-area parent group spoke out Wednesday, calling on the district to ban the use of around 50 additional pesticides and chemicals that farmers are allowed to use around rural schools.<\/p>\n

Kristina Holmes-McIntyre, co-founder of the Fresno Community Parent Coalition, said that parents have concerns over the use of chemicals on FUSD school sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our understanding that there are about 50 chemicals that the school is using, 35 which are banned by other countries,\u201d Holmes-McIntyre said during the meeting.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Holmes-McIntyre thanked Superintendent Her and Deputy Superintendent Ben Drati during the meeting for being open to the group\u2019s concerns and feedback.<\/p>\n

Part of the feedback asks the district to make its pesticide notifications to parents more apparent and for a parent form to request information about pesticide applications at their schools to be digitized for more accessibility.<\/p>\n

HVAC issues at Rowell Elementary<\/p>\n

Meg Wunder, a library media tech at Rowell Elementary, spoke during FUSD\u2019s meeting and asked the board to replace the library\u2019s 55-year-old HVAC system.<\/p>\n

Wunder said that Rowell had previously been renovated in the early 2000s when Measure K funding was available then. Those renovations did not extend to the HVAC system in the library building, which Wunder explained is so inefficient and old, district maintenance workers have to manufacture parts for repairs because the machines are no longer made.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd just so you know, I don\u2019t care about the frizzy hair, I care about having to replace another copy of \u2018Rikki-Tikki-Tavi\u2019 because it\u2019s growing mildew,\u201d Wunder said.<\/p>\n

Previously, Fresno Unified received over $700 million<\/a> in federal pandemic relief funds in 2021 and committed to implementing High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters in every classroom, but a year after, no filters had yet been installed, even as students attended class during peak wildfire season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by Fresnoland. Fresno Unified students missed new literacy target goals, but Superintendent Misty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-446553","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\/446553","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=446553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}