\u201cBright-spot campuses are incredibly intentional about how they bring together all of the important ingredients like school culture, a belief in all students\u2019 ability to achieve at high levels, data-driven instruction, and typically have very structured coaching and teacher development systems and practices,\u201d said Leila Santill\u00e1n, chief operating officer of the Fort Worth Education Partnership.<\/p>\n
Kindergarten teacher Arselia Espinoza, right, works with students on identifying the parts of a sentence during class at Cesar Chavez Elementary on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Fort Worth. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2018secret sauce\u2019 is both about what the school has in place, but equally important is how they implement, monitor and refine those elements consistently,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
In 2025, 55% of Alice Contreras students were reading at grade level while 51% of students were performing on grade level in math. At Cesar Chavez, 56% of students were reading on grade level while 39% of students were performing on grade level in math.<\/p>\n
In the city of Fort Worth, 37% of students<\/a> in grades 3-8 performed on grade level across all subjects \u2014 including reading, math, science and social studies \u2014 in 2025, while 43% of students across Tarrant County met this benchmark across the same subjects. As two school districts in the area, Fort Worth ISD<\/a> and Lake Worth ISD<\/a>, face state takeovers from the Texas Education Agency due to years of poor academic performance at specific campuses, local leaders have been sounding the alarm<\/a> on the need to improve academics, especially in literacy.<\/p>\n According to the Fort Worth Education Partnership, Alice Contreras was recognized for its growth of more than 30 percentage points for students meeting grade level in reading. The number of students meeting this standard in math rose by more than 20 percentage points. These reading and math increases were seen over the course of a decade.<\/p>\n The nonprofit\u2019s report also highlights Cesar Chavez\u2019s expedited growth from 2024 to 2025, when there was a spike in reading proficiency by 25 percentage points. In the same period, math proficiency grew by 9 percentage points. Principal Monica Ordaz told the Star-Telegram this growth didn\u2019t happen overnight, but took years to bring to fruition.<\/p>\n She outlined practices such as having clear goals with student performance data that can be efficiently monitored by campus leadership; combining high-quality instructional materials with the best teaching strategies; and supporting both teachers and students who need additional resources.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a long journey of implementing all of these items consistently and just getting better at all of them,\u201d Ordaz said. \u201cIt\u2019s taken a long time to get all the teachers on the same page about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Amelia Cortes-Rangel, principal of Alice Contreras Elementary, underscored the importance of quality tier-one instruction, which is the first layer of teaching that all students receive in the classroom, alongside professional learning communities where teachers collaborate on enhancing and rehearsing their lessons. She also pointed to a campus culture focused on building a growth mindset, which she called \u201ca big game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat really did help with this overall. I would hear students in the classroom say, \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t know how to do this one yet, but I\u2019m going to ask my teacher for help,\u2019\u201d Cortes-Rangel said. \u201cThat was very powerful, too, and that\u2019s something that we continue to instill in our classroom (and) in our entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n Ordaz and Cortes-Rangel also emphasized community partnerships as a driving factor of success. The principals have served in their positions for about 13 and eight years, respectively, which has helped them build these partnerships over time. For example, Cesar Chavez has donors who provide uniforms, school supplies and food for the campus\u2019 food bank. Alice Contreras partners with the Junior Optimist Club program to provide extracurricular activities and sports to students. The school also partners with Academy 4, which provides mentors to every fourth-grader on campus.<\/p>\n As far as advice for other school leaders who are looking to improve student performance, both educators said identifying the needs of students, teachers and community members is key. Cortes-Rangel recommends staying focused on goals and introducing a campus culture similar to what Alice Contreras has adopted.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s going to go back to being very intentional at analyzing the data to then be able to support the teachers. Because then, once we know where our students are and some of their strengths and their gaps and the teachers as well\u2026 we could be more intentional as to what we\u2019re doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ordaz noted that meeting the needs of the school community may require creativity. Results will require patience and consistency.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t say that the style in which I have done it is a formula that everyone could implement, but there are some data-based, high-leverage moves. I mean having a leadership team that is organized, having strong instructional knowledge and having contact with parents. There are some key moves that leaders can implement that can have a big impact.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see why any school could not make steps towards that, and the results might not happen overnight, but taking small steps every year, trying to do those things with more consistency over time, it does work,\u201d Ordaz said.<\/p>\n Kindergarten students at Cesar Chavez Elementary work on an assignment during class on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Fort Worth. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
Second-grade students at Cesar Chavez Elementary work on an assignment during class on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Fort Worth. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
Teacher Patricia Ramirez helps her second-grade students work on an assignment at Cesar Chavez Elementary on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Fort Worth. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
Kindergarten teacher Arselia Espinoza, right, works with students on identifying parts of a sentence during class at Cesar Chavez Elementary on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Fort Worth. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
Second-grade students at Cesar Chavez Elementary work on an assignment during class on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Fort Worth. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
\n Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two elementary schools in the Fort Worth Independent School District are leading by example for surrounding Tarrant County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[66255,66254,116,118,8257,117,15982,62160],"class_list":{"0":"post-161811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-alice-contreras-elementary","9":"tag-cesar-chavez-elementary","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","12":"tag-fort-worth-isd","13":"tag-fort-worth-news","14":"tag-fort-worth-schools","15":"tag-test-scores"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}