Some of the most powerful conversations about education happen when leaders bring both professional expertise and personal experience to the table.
In the first episode of the OnYourMark Podcast, OnYourMark Education CEO Mindy Sjoblom sits down with Dr. Jerry Hollingsworth, superintendent of Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District in Fort Worth, Texas. What makes this conversation particularly compelling? Both leaders have watched their own children struggle with reading—and that experience shapes how they think about building literacy systems that actually work.
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Mindy opens up about her youngest son, who wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until age 13. "I remember picking up his 5th-grade novel and saying, 'Can you just read this to me?' And it just hit me in the face that his lack of ability to read fluently was so disruptive to his comprehension. I put myself in his shoes as a kid who had always identified as being smart, and to start seeing that frustration come out was just heartbreaking."
Dr. Hollingsworth shares a similar story. His oldest and youngest sons both struggled with reading and then identified as dyslexic. "I remember asking when Wyatt, my oldest, was in second grade… 'How much of a struggle is it?' And [the principal] goes, 'If I'm being honest, we're really scratching our heads.' I just felt that weight that I know parents feel."
These aren't just anecdotes—they're the fuel behind both leaders' commitment to getting early literacy instruction and intervention right from the start. As Mindy puts it: "How do we figure out how to get the supports in front of kids that they need from a very, very early age?"
Dr. Hollingsworth describes the fundamental shift happening in districts across the country. "Children come to us with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences related to literacy. We don't use those things as excuses for why a school or classroom is not performing. We just have to know who's walking in our door so we can serve them better."
Mindy builds on this, emphasizing the importance of meeting students where they are: "We meet our kids where they are and then figure out exactly what it is that they need in order to get there—that definitely is something that resonates deeply with me."
In Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, which serves 24,000 students across 73 square miles, that diversity is stark. Students come from Section 8 housing and million-dollar lakefront homes—and everything in between. The district is at 51% economically disadvantaged, slightly below Texas's state average of 62%.
Dr. Hollingsworth notes a critical insight from Eagle Mountain Saginaw's journey: "We've kind of over-identified children for special services. Our data shows that we have higher percentages of kids that we've identified for interventions, and it points back to not having as strong a system for Tier 1 instruction."
Mindy's conclusion? "You can't intervene your way out of a Tier 1 problem."
The district's response focused on removing variability and implementing consistent, rigorous instructional materials across all 31 campuses. This included creating structures to support teachers through the transition, like built-in planning time to internalize new lessons.
"When you're growing really fast," Dr. Hollingsworth explains, "if you go into Ms. Sjoblom's classroom and Mr. Hollingsworth's classroom, you're likely going to see some pretty significant differences. That worked pretty well when we were very homogeneous...but as your demographics change significantly, we have to have consistency."
Mindy highlights an important shift in how education leaders think about improvement: "We often find ourselves in education making it an either/or rather than a both/and thing. The reality is we need really strong, adaptive leadership AND really great materials in front of teachers and kids—both of those things in partnership are really a place where magic can really happen."
This both/and thinking extends to how Eagle Mountain-Saginaw created accountability. Rather than a thick, unwieldy district improvement plan, they condensed everything to a single-page balanced scorecard with one clear priority: every student grows at least one year, every year.
"If everything's a priority, then nothing's a priority," Dr. Hollingsworth notes, citing Frank Sonnenberg. The board receives monthly reports on academic progress, ensuring all 3,500 staff members know what matters most.
This conversation goes deep into the realities of leading literacy improvement at scale. Mindy and Dr. Hollingsworth discuss:
Hear Mindy and Dr. Hollingsworth's complete discussion about building literacy systems, supporting teachers through change, and why getting Tier 1 instruction right matters more than ever.
Hear Mindy and Dr. Hollingsworth's complete discussion about building literacy systems, supporting teachers through change, and why getting Tier 1 instruction right matters more than ever.
Listen here.
Watch here.
Want to explore how high-impact tutoring can support your district's literacy goals? Connect with OnYourMark to discuss research-backed solutions that complement strong Tier 1 instruction.
Inspired by her youngest son’s late dyslexia diagnosis, Mindy Sjoblom founded OnYourMark Education to ensure all students learn to read by third grade.
Mindy’s resume includes over 20 years of experience in education, beginning as a teacher and startup specialist with Teach For America in Baltimore. She then served as the Founding Director of Curriculum and Instruction and Principal at Rauner College Prep in Chicago. As the Founding Dean of Relay Graduate School of Education’s Chicago campus, she helped grow the program into Illinois’ second-largest and most diverse teacher provider.
She later joined the Charter School Growth Fund as an Entrepreneur in Residence, launching OnYourMark to support schools in delivering individualized instruction grounded in the Science of Reading. Under her leadership, OnYourMark serves thousands of children nationwide through its high-impact tutoring model.