Fresno Unified School District has achieved huge gains in early literacy, surpassing the district’s interim goal for kindergarten students.

In early 2025, the district narrowed efforts and raised expectations, committing to four goals and guardrails.

Related Story: Has Fresno Unified Finally Planted the Flag for an Academic Revolution?

One interim goal aimed to raise the percentage of students showing mastery in foundational literacy skills from 50.5% to 62.5% by June 2026.

Kindergarten classrooms blew past that goal with 70% of pupils achieving mastery — equaling 3,074 out of 4,364 students — on the Kindergarten Foundational Skills Assessment.

“These results reflect the incredible work happening every day in our classrooms. Reaching and exceeding our Early Literacy goal means thousands more students are on track for long-term success,” said Superintendent Misty Her.

“When 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.”

The Goal: Proficient Readers by Third Grade

Now, first-grade teachers will be able to accelerate learning without having to repeat and reteach past skills.

These test results also indicate that more students are on track to becoming proficient readers by third grade

Research shows that students who are not on track to becoming readers by the end of third grade are less likely to graduate from high school prepared for college and career.

Fresno Unified Fall Short on Other Literacy Goal

However, in other literacy areas the district is failing to reach its target.

The district set an interim goal around literacy intervention, looking to increase the percentage of identified 7th – 8th grade students who improve at least one performance band on the district interim assessment from 44% to 65% by June 2027.

Currently, only 49.8% of students are meeting that goal, falling short of the district’s June 2026 target of 55%.

Superintendent Her Will Talk Literacy on ‘Unfiltered’

Superintendent Her will appear tonight as a guest on the Unfiltered Podcast, hosted by GV Wire publisher Darius Assemi.

Her is set to discuss how the district is working to increase literacy. Alongside her, a first-grade lead teacher from Mayfair Elementary, Ana Bustos, will share classroom insights.

Her spent every Monday morning this past school year co-teaching literacy alongside Bustos. This partnership led to impressive results with 84% of pupils reading at grade level.

Unfiltered is streamed live every Tuesday at 6 p.m. on GV Wire and Facebook.