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At the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Tarrant County’s Martin Branch on June 26, 2024, LIFT reading interventionist Tonya Houston sits and reads with students. (Courtesy photo | Vernessa Evans)
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A teetering Jenga tower came down with a clatter, scattering various words across a table inside the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County’s Martin Branch in east Fort Worth.

As a small group of kindergarten and first grade students re-stacked what they had knocked down seconds earlier, they read the labeled blocks. 

“Forth!”

“Fourth!” 

“Were!” 

“Where!” 

The pattern continued, as each student carefully placed the latest word onto the one before.

While the competition was fierce, the game’s educational value was clear. Heart word games, like this one, not only make learning fun but also improve reading skills for some Fort Worth students, according to Parent Shield Fort Worth. So much so, that parents are eager for more involvement.

What are heart words?

Irregularly spelled words are called “heart words” because some part of the word will have to be “learned by heart.”

Heart words can also be used so frequently that they need to be read and spelled automatically.

As children master heart words, their parents become more aware of the importance of early reading intervention. Despite more than 90% of Tarrant County parents believing their children read at grade level, only half of the children in the county are, according to data from Go Beyond Grades, a campaign launched by the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, Parent Pass and The Miles Foundation. 

The LIFT program, hosted at two Fort Worth Boys & Girls Clubs locations in collaboration with Parent Shield, aimed to bridge this gap and improve reading in kindergarten through fifth grade students across Fort Worth. But with the program’s initial funding now depleted, its continuation is in jeopardy.

What does LIFT stand for?

Literacy is freedom in Texas

Intervention could be crucial, said Vernessa Evans, lead consultant of the LIFT program.

“The need cannot be overstated,” Evans said. “When we first assessed the students, we found that 64% were not reading at grade level. Then we would talk to the parents — many had no idea.”

Parents take initiative

When Fort Worth resident Nancy Horne noticed her then-first grade daughter Olivia Dawson struggling with reading, she used a newfound connection to intervene.

Horne previously met Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, Parent Shield’s executive director, and remembered the many options Dorsey-Hollins recommended to her and Olivia. At the time, none worked for them.

Horne knew there was an issue with her daughter’s reading abilities but didn’t have the time or resources to tutor her children. Neither could she have afforded to hire one, she said. She isn’t alone.

Launched in March 2023, the LIFT program was born from Horne and other parents’ experience. Dorsey-Hollins saw a need for after-school academic support for students whose parents don’t have the luxury of reading to their kids before bedtime — and for those who don’t even know their student is struggling.

“I just didn’t feel like I was putting in as much as I could,” Horne said. “We were busy working and didn’t have the time to help her as much as we wanted to. This came right on time for her.”

Still, Dorsey-Hollins said most of the parents involved in LIFT had no idea their kids’ reading troubles were so pronounced. 

The LIFT program, which ended June 27, provided structured reading intervention twice a week during the school year and four days a week during the summer. 

The curriculum, taught in breakout groups of three students based on age or reading level, was filled with lessons on word pronunciation and sentence structure. Dorsey-Hollins said the program’s focus on small-group instruction, too, may have played a difference.

“The approach really worked not only for closing those gaps, but also really building the relationships with and between a lot of the students,” Dorsey-Hollins said. “Interventionists were able to build real relationships with their parents. Parents were more open to feedback.”

‘I already have a teenager’

This structured approach, combined with engaging activities like heart word Jenga, was ultimately designed to build students’ literacy skills — and it did just that.

“The (final) data shows a one-and-a-half-year growth from the pre-assessment to post assessment,” Dorsey-Hollins said. 

Horne also witnessed a stark improvement in Olivia’s reading abilities throughout the year, she said. 

Now an incoming third grader, Olivia initially struggled with Cs or Ds in reading but finished the last six weeks of school on the A-B honor roll, Horne said. 

The transformation wasn’t only academic. Horne observed a significant boost in her daughters’ confidence and vocabulary, she said.

“She came home saying ‘literally’… she came home calling things permanent,” Horne said. “It’s like I already have a teenager.” 

Juanita Aldama, a LIFT program interventionist, also noticed the growth in her students’ general confidence. She’s responsible for 12 of the 25 LIFT students who were split between two Boys & Girls Clubs locations.

“I’ve seen the reading come easier to them, and it’s so rewarding to see the kids actually excited about reading and learning,” Aldama said.

Despite all of its successes, the future of LIFT is uncertain, Dorsey-Hollins said. The program’s first round was funded through a grant to Parent Shield and, as the demand for such interventions grows, securing funding is critical, she said. 

“We’re definitely looking to secure more funding so that we can hopefully expand and then just do the same thing in more locations with more students,” she said.

Parents like Horne are eager for LIFT to continue.

“If they offer it again, I will definitely sign up. It’s been a game-changer for my kids,” she said.

For now, the program’s end will leave a gap that parents and educators alike hope to soon be filled. Until it is, what did Dorsey-Hollins take away from the program’s successes?

“Just seeing the fact that parents are taking charge of their child’s education.” 

Disclosure: The Sid W. Richardson Foundation and The Miles Foundation have been financial supporters of the Fort Worth Report. News decisions at the Fort Worth Report are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @MatthewSgroi1. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.