Why You Think Dallas ISD Stinks: Because You Read the Paper
A very alert FrontBurnervian points us to news of a soon-to-be-released study done by the National School Board Association’s Council of Urban Boards of Education. (Deep breath.) The study’s title: “What We Think: Parental Perceptions of Urban School Climate.” The central finding: if parents rely on newspapers for information, their opinions about school safety, teacher quality, and academic success are less positive than those of parents who get their information from other sources. Why? Here’s an example:
[C]rime stories often linked a victim or criminal to a nearby school, even if the crime did not occur on school grounds or those involved were no longer students.
Surely a decent newspaper would never make such a mistake, right? On April 16, the DMN ran a story about a kid who died most likely from a cheese overdose. The online version came with the headline “‘Cheese’ Heroin Likely Killed 18-year-old Dallas Man.” But the print version ran with this headline: “‘Cheese’ Likely Killed W.T. White Student.”
Thing is, the deceased hadn’t been an active student at White for about 18 months. The paper ran a correction, but I’m sure it did nothing to change the perceptions reinforced by the erroneous headline.
19 Comments to “Why You Think Dallas ISD Stinks: Because You Read the Paper”
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Reading the paper is pointless and does little to contribute to my understanding of the world … I got rid of expanded cable and no longer miss cable news so I am hopeful that some day I will shake off my daily newspaper addiction as well.
Don’t newspapers give us a negative view of almost everything?
Even still, what are the “other sources” we have to rely on? If I instead look to the DISD itself for information (including parent groups within specific schools), shouldn’t I be just as skeptical about that information as I am about the information in the paper?
For newspapers, it’s all about what sells, and, unfortunately, negative sells. Fear sells. Shock sells. Hopefully the focus will change as more and more people turn to the endless online sources of information for their news. Even if it does, though, readers must always be critical of the information they are receiving from whatever source they receive it. It seems everyone has some sort of incentive somewhere to which they are enslaved. Readers must become more and more aware of that as more and more sources of news become available.
Oh, and I failed to mention, my kids are students of DISD schools.
I couldn’t agree more. And it’s even worse for major urban school district like DISD. I’m confident that any large district like Plano, Richardson, or Garland has its fair share of questionable practices, but does the News ever bother looking for those? Why bother? DISD is easy and convenient. But it’s hard on city when its intitutions are constantly under attack, especially when surrounding areas get a free pass.
Oh yeah, I have 2 kids getting an excellent education at DISD.
It sure makes DISD look a lot better when proper headline should have read “Cheese Likely Killed W.T. White Dropout.”
I’m sure DISD isn’t as bad as presented in teh papers, but it is not a good school district by any measure.
The trick is to read our fine daily news paper knowing full well it’s slanted and poorly edited.
Take the DISD Audit stories. From what I’ve heard so far, this audit isn’t going to be any worse than some of the audit reports I’ve dealt with professionally (aside: a former employer, before taking outside VC investment, spent 18 months and $5 million trying to pass an outside accounting/SAS70 audit; I’m not sure if they ever really did pass.). Granted, DISD audits should go a lot easier since theoretically they’ve been audited repeatedly over the last few decades. This one hasn’t and is appears to be related mostly to accounting system changes (hay, it happens; especially when someone cuts the Administration training budget). If you only read DMN’s coverage of this, you’d think this is the worst audit in Deloitte history. No mention, of course, of DMN’s own issues with auditors.
So what exactly is the measure of a good school district, Mike? How do you measure that? And how can you compare that to other districts, such as Highland Park or Southlake, who have relatively no student populations who are at risk of dropping out, or who speak English as a second language, or who have only one parent at home working three jobs to make ends meet? Is the measure simply graduation rates? That’s not enough for all kids (mine included), but it was the focus recently in the DMN - as if that alone makes a good school district. Or is it the fact that a school has the highest number of National Merit Scholars? Again, not enough for all kids, because Woodrow had more than some of the acclaimed or untouched suburban high schools in the area, and sent lots of kids to East Coast Ivy League schools last year, but that doesn’t make it a great school for the kid just trying to graduate and get a decent job.
It’s just not that easy, Mike, and your comment is direct proof of what the article is pointing out - that negative perceptions are driven by misinformation in newspapers and affect those of us out here not paying enough attention.
This may just be the case of two wrongs (bad journalism, loose schools) combining to make a sad reflection on a town. Except that, well, there’s that FBI thing at city hall and there are the lousy traffic problems and that thing with the Trinity River Parkway and the murders and the trucks falling on cars and the derelicts rifling pockets of people who are dead or having seizures….well, maybe this town is getting what it deserves…
And by “this town,” I’m assuming you mean some government agencies, poor city planning, and criminals? Because I am none of these things and live in Dallas…
NB, that is correct. I do not mean those agencies, those planners, those criminals or the people who speed, change lanes without signaling, put their makeup on while driving in school zones and talking on their cellphones, drop their trash out car windows, empty ashtrays at stop signs and red lights or, indeed, fail to spay and neuter their pets. If you do not fall within those categories you are, of course, exempt from criticism. Do you recycle? Oh, wait, only in certain zip codes….
domyeyesdeceiveme?, I hope it’s not your position that these things only happen in Dallas.
Dallas, contrary to the belief of many, does not have a monopoly on violent crime, corruption, broken government, self centered morons, crappy sports teams or bad things. It simply doesn’t.
Fixing it is easy to say, but hard to implement: vote, run for office, get involved in your neighborhood, get to know your council person, etc. Just do something other than read the newspaper, and shake your head.
JamesN, nope. Not my stand at all. It happens everywhere, like you say. It just ticks me off more when it happens in Dallas.
But, I’m going to have to disagree on one point: Unlike you, I believe Dallas does have more self-centered morons.
I’d put our morons up against any morons in America.
DISD has been poorly–dare I say terribly–managed for the better part of two (if not more) decades. Despite levying excessive property taxes to local property owners, the school district has not markedly improved. It does not have a good image because of those who have mismanaged it, at the expense of students who deserve a quality education. It makes me wonder what we are paying for. Maybe the news is skewed–bad news does sell more papers than good news, sad but true. But, I wouldn’t be one to argue that there is a lot of good publicity to go around for DISD. It’s in pretty bad shape, and in need of leaders with integrity who are really committed to raising the standard of public education.
If I had children, I would not send them to a school in DISD if I could afford an alternative. Say what you will about private schools being whitewashed and elitist, but the quality of education far surpasses the majority of public options in the school district.
The same type of “painting with a broad brush” happens with Fair Park, just as with DISD. The DMN and TV media will refer to a “Fair Park area murder” when it occurred 3 miles away. Why isn’t Forest and Central a
“Northpark area murder?” It is imprecise reporting and editing that are the cause.
Mike’s implies the school has sole responsibility for its dropouts and graduates. Well then, here’s to Highland Park for John Hinkley Jr.
I disagree and say kudo’s to W. T. White’s recent graduates: http://www.wtwhitehs.org/matriculation0208.pdf
Excellent point Tim. And certainly one I championed earlier this century constantly as crimes that occurred across the street from Mesquite and closer to Lakewood and Casa Linda than ‘Pleasant Grove’ were inevitably said to have happened ‘there’. When I contacted the media regarding, they either failed to see the relevance of my ‘point’ (that being accuracy and fairness)or (get this) explained that they knew it was not in the relatively small neighborhood in Southeast Dallas properly called ‘Pleasant Grove’ BUT they used ‘that name’ because it had (listener or reader) ‘recognition’ and to use the correct geo-specifics would ‘mean nothing’ to those (listening or reading). I was stunned.
Meanwhile, Jodie Dean’s truck being stolen at NorthPark mall gets press after all the years when, for instance in the early 90s when I worked there, a widow of a very well-known soft drink exec was shot in the face near where Dean’s truck vanished, and no press was printed. Sacred cow hands off. Your point and mine: the press perhaps unintentionally maligns whole areas of town and institutions like the DISD by carelessly connecting unrelated dots.
Hey Mike, If the deceased had attended Highland Park, would that have guaranteed his graduation? Since you think the school is solely responsible for its drop-outs and graduates, then remember John Hinkley Jr. graduated from HP.
Now take a minute to learn where most W. T. White students matriculate: http://www.wtwhitehs.org/matriculation0208.pdf
Some of us like to call it Hinckley Park.
Sergio Leija was a student who became a Cheese Heroin user at WT White, Jennifer Alba was also a former student who started using Heroin within DISD and Cyrstal Mendoza overdosed in sith period at Nort Dallas High School, not to mention that 3 12 year olds tested positive for Cheese Heroin.
The reason in the spike is that DISD has effectively shut down police operations in its war on drugs in the schools, shifting staff, lowballing numbers to show a significant drop when in fact it has gone up.
The blame is put squarely on DISD, the school district has been given constructive notice that it has a very serious problem, it as as district has a responsibility to take reasonable steps to protect the public (its students) from danger and this has not been done, the law is clear and unambiguos in that DISD has a duty to protect and instead of carrying out its duty, it is worry about public perception, giving irrelevance to its children.
Not being in the syatem when you died is irrelevant, what DISD must respond to is how did this 18 and everyone else become heroin addicted while under the care and supervision of DISD, where was its DUTY TO PROTECT.