Greetings, District 2!
With spring vibes in the air, we are marching on at Dallas ISD! Here’s a glimpse of what’s unfolding this month:
Dallas ISD District 2 Monthly Updates:
Dallas ISD Neighborhood Schools Offer Choice(s): In addition to multiple academic programs, there are many ways for students to grow their talents and develop leadership skills, including athletics, cheer, visual and performing arts, e-sports, debate, newspaper, yearbook, UIL competitions, chess, and more. Check out the different student activities available in neighborhood schools throughout the district and come in person and learn more about what our neighborhood schools have to offer at the More Choice Expo this Saturday, March 23!
Dallas ISD is Up for Debate: Collaboration between the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance and Dallas ISD is providing opportunities for 1,100 of our students across the district to compete in debate. With the second largest debate program in the United States, it’s hard to argue against the benefits of sharpening critical thinking, boosting public speaking skills and fostering an understanding of diverse perspectives that are enjoyed by our debaters.
Dallas ISD District 2 Student: She's Making Waves and Making History: Woodrow Wilson’s legendary Campbell Chase set yet another 5A swimming record in the individual medley, in addition to winning two gold medals at this year’s UIL 5A Swimming State Championship! We wish her well as she competes this summer in Indianapolis to join the 2024 Olympic Swim Team, and then heads to UT Austin in the fall, where she will join the Longhorn swim and diving team.
Dallas ISD's New Namings: At our March meeting, the Board approved the following school names:
March Board Meeting Debrief:
This month, Dallas ISD had its regular board briefing and meeting. I’ve chosen to highlight the most important items below:
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Update on Third-Grade Student Achievement Goals: The Dallas ISD Board has specific goals related to improving third grade reading and math achievement. This month, we received a third-grade mid-year progress update which showed strong student progress in their proficiency growth in both math and reading over their second-grade middle of year results. This is significant given that Dallas ISD implemented a new curriculum for both reading and math this year for the first time. While we did show material cohort growth, we did not achieve the year over year third-grade growth we were hoping for; that is, when comparing third graders from last year to third graders from this year. As such, Superintendent Elizalde and her team shared strategies to continue to accelerate impact for our students, which included more hands-on, engaging content in both math and reading, targeted professional development for teachers, and targeted interventions for high-need students.
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Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI) Update: TEI is the district’s performance evaluation system, implemented in 2015-16, in which teachers are compensated based on performance, student achievement, and student experience surveys. With TEI in place, Dallas ISD is able to take advantage of incentive state funding (Teacher Incentive Allotment, or TIA), which in turn allows us to attract, reward and retain highly effective teachers and provide strategic incentives to work at high priority campuses. Dallas ISD has been a leader across the state and nation in innovating teacher compensation. Since TEI’s implementation, highly rated teachers are retained in the district at rates above 90% in all years. Also of note, while teacher turnover rates have increased across the state, Dallas ISD turnover is 1.3% lower than the state and 3.6% lower than Region 10 districts, despite having a higher percentage of high poverty campuses.
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Dallas ISD Budget: Every year, the Dallas ISD school board adopts our subsequent year’s annual budget at the end of the school year. Please join us at our Dallas ISD Community 2024-2025 Budget Workshop in District 2 on Monday, March 25th at 6p at Hillcrest High School.
Dallas ISD Bond Construction Updates:
Campus infrastructure upgrades funded by the proceeds from the 2020 Bond continue. For up-to-date information across the district, please see Dallas ISD’s dedicated 2020 Bond website.
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have thoughts, ideas, questions, concerns, or simply want to say hello!
Best,
Sarah Weinberg
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