Fresno Unified allocates more than $100 million to 'Every Child is a Reader' initiative

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- As the Fresno Unified School District aims to make sure every student is reading at grade level by the end of first grade, Chief Academic Officer Natasha Baker, Ed. D., says they're also dedicating millions of dollars to make it possible.

"We wanted to make sure that we resource our schools well for this initiative," Baker said.

Over the course of five years, between 2023 and 2028, the district has allocated $109.5 million for the literacy initiative 'Every Child is a Reader.'

The district says $2.3 million each year will be dedicated to curriculum and instruction.

Each of the five regional high school areas will receive similar amounts of funding, but the source of funding may differ.

"If you juxtapose Bullard region to Fresno region, you're going to see them be resourced a little differently," Baker said.

While the Bullard region will receive a total of $11.9 million from the district, the Fresno region will receive only $11.2 million from the district.

RELATED: How FUSD high school regions got to weigh in, make decisions on 'Every Child is a Reader' plan

That's because it's also receiving nearly $700,000 from a state grant.

"Our low-wealth communities actually receive more resources from the state than our higher-wealth communities," Baker said.

According to data from EdSource, 2022-2023 test results show Black and Hispanic students struggle to meet English requirements.

Only about 20% of Black students and about 30% of Hispanic students met or exceeded the state standard in English.

Baker says that's part of the reason a total of $14.5 million has been allocated to African American Academic Acceleration.

It's a program that was created to support Black students in the district.

"We saw this as an opportunity to resource A4 in a way that would help a demographic that has typically underperformed," Baker said.

Baker says they will be monitoring student progress quarterly, but says she knows, in the long run, people are most concerned with test scores.

"When it starts playing out in our state results, that's when people will say it worked," Baker said.

Baker says she has seen preliminary test results from the 23-24 school year.

She says they look promising, but she says they're waiting for those test results to be finalized by the state before sharing more.

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