Last year, the TEA recognized eight distinguished elementary schools in DISD. This year the district gets 24 on the list. It will be interesting to see how the DMN plays this story tomorrow. Think it’ll make front page? Front of Metro? The list of the district’s distinguished schools follows after the jump.
DALLAS ISD CAMPUSES MAKE 2009-2010 DISTINGUISHED SCHOOLS LIST
TEA Recognizes Title 1 Schools Demonstrating Strong Academic Performance For a Three-Year Period
DALLAS—The Texas Education Agency’s Division of NCLB Program Coordination has recognized 24 Dallas ISD elementary schools as distinguished campuses for their outstanding performance over the last three years.
Schools making the list are Title 1, Part A campuses that were rated exemplary for 2009-2010, met AYP for 2008 and 2009, and have a student population of 40 percent or more low income students.
The list recognizes schools in two categories, Distinguished Performance and Distinguished Progress. Distinguished Performance schools achieved a minimum of recognized status for the two previous years and are exemplary this year. Distinguished Progress schools increased their status from either academically unacceptable or acceptable two years ago, to recognized or exemplary last year and exemplary this year.
“Students in the Dallas Independent School District continue to make our entire community proud by making impressive academic gains,” said Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa. “To have schools recognized by the NCLB program as distinguished is encouraging, because it shows that progress is being made to close the achievement gap. This is a tremendous accomplishment by the students and staff.”
Dallas ISD Distinguished Performance schools are:
· Arthur Kramer Elementary School
· Charles Rice Learning Center
· Elisha M. Pease Elementary School
· Erasmo Seguin Community Learning Center
· George Peabody Elementary School
· H.S. Thompson Learning Center
· James B. Bonham Elementary School
· John Neely Bryan Elementary School
· Julia C. Frazier Elementary School
· Mount Auburn Elementary School
· Phillis Wheatley Elementary School
· Ronald E. McNair Elementary School
· Sidney Lanier Expressive Arts Vanguard
· Victor H. Hexter Elementary School
· William Lipscomb Elementary School
Dallas ISD Distinguished Progress schools are:
· Harry C. Withers Elementary School
· J.P. Starks Elementary School
· James Bowie Elementary School
· James W. Fannin Elementary School
· Jimmie Tyler Brashear Elementary School
· Julius Dorsey Elementary School
· Nathan Adams Elementary School
· Oran M. Roberts Elementary School
· William B. Miller Elementary School
Last year, eight Dallas ISD schools made the Distinguished Performance list and no schools were on the Distinguished Progress list.
Title 1, Part A schools have a high concentration of students from low-income families and receive supplemental funding to provide a high-quality education that will enable all children to meet the state’s student performance standards.
For more information, visit the Web site.
3 comments
I’m more interested on the trend of schools who have been added to the list. Up? Down? How does that compare to Houston and other large cities in Texas?
And I like that the DMN has been hard on the DISD. The focus should be intense given that the district in certain areas has been awash in complacency and corruption. What do you expect?
Ultimately, DISD would benefit from breaking up into smaller, autonomous or semi-autonomous districts, while possibly maintaining central control where it can provide economies of scale like maintenance, purchasing and technology.
Big school districts in general, and DISD in particular, remind me of what has happened with CitiGroup – too big too manage, too many agendas, too difficult to maintain a coherent strategy or too hard to deliver strong, consistent results.
Discuss.
I think they should be hard on the administration and board but recognize at least a few of the hundreds of great things happening at the schools. This is where a lot of us have difficulty with the Dallas Morning News. And do they ever criticize a private school? Oh wait they buy ads and have PR directors.
Congratulations to Mount Auburn, Bonham, Hexter, O.M. Roberts and the always-exemplary Lipscomb in my area.
The DMN reports more happenings at the district level than at the school level. Thus the skew. Many great things are happening at the school level–not so at the district level.