Time for a New Way

Here's Dallas ISD 5th Grade Winner of the annual Oratory Competition, Lyriq Turner presenting at the Local Legends celebration. I think you'll enjoy! Amazing young woman!

Learning, diversity and choice

The notion of "school choice" stirs up heated debates.

Still, when the goal of choice in public education is to achieve more socio-economic diversity for the good of all students, we should pay attention.

Schools with a mixed population economically perform better for everyone.

  Let me know what you think of this?

 

Important school bond issue coming in November!

In August, the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees voted to bring a $1.6 billion bond proposal to the citizens of Dallas on November 3. The proposal is based on the recommendations of the Future Facilities Task Force, commissioned last fall by the superintendent and comprised of community members appointed by the Board of Trustees to represent each of their districts.

  The proposed bond for Dallas ISD is anticipated to fund new schools, expanded academic programs, and facility improvements at almost every district school.

The Hub contains an interactive online map that details the proposed projects that are currently anticipated to be funded with bond proceeds. Click here to view the map and learn more.

If you need additional information, please visit www.dallasisd.org/bond2015. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at pblackmon@dallasisd.org.

Thank you, Paula C. Blackmon
Senior Executive Director Intergovernmental Affairs and Community Relations
Dallas Independent School District
 

Michael Sorrell and Gerald Britt weigh in on poverty and public education

For almost 10 months, Dallas has been engaged in a very public local battle in the national war to “fix” urban education.

Nationally, and locally, some combatants on both sides of the war — while sincere — employ logic and tactics that insult and belittle the very communities they purport to save. All parties in this war share the goals of higher-performing students, better-equipped schools and the redevelopment of economically depressed neighborhoods.

Yet in Dallas and across the country, communities that presumably have the most to gain from the efforts of the reformers are rebelling against them. To quote Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs: “What’s the matter here?”

To read the entire essay click here. 

Gerald Britt, VP with CitySquare speaks up. . .

To hear Rev. Gerald Britt, CitySquare VP of Public Policy and Workforce Development, respond to calls for the firing of Dallas Independent School District Superintendent, Mike Miles click here.

More on CitySquare's 17th Annual Urban Ministries Prayer Breakfast!

One of the reasons that this year's prayer breakfast promises to be among the best we've ever hosted at CitySquare is our participants' list! 

The morning will be fast-paced and filled with experts and important leaders. 

Our own Rev. Gerald Britt will make an opening statement as he introduces Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, a champion of public education and a leader with a heart for renewal and reform for the sake of every DISD student. 

Following the Mayor's remarks, he and Gerald will join a distingished panel that includes representatives from Commit!, Educate Dallas and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.

Be sure and read my post from yesterday.  Whatever you do, don't miss our special morning on April 12!

If I were the next Superintendent of the Dallas Public Schools

Can you imagine the enormity of such a challenge?  To move into our school district, so riddled by poverty, economic and educational disparity, high drop out rates and very low outcomes on producing college-ready graduates--talk about a challenge.

I agree with those who identify poverty as the biggest challenge facing our district, its students and our next district leader. 

What would I do if I were the next superintendent of DISD?  Here's my short list of action items to plant in the school culture over the first 5 years.

1.  Identify "master teachers" already at work in the schools.  Every school has them.  Everyone knows who they are.  But how do we leverage their success to benefit other faculty members, as well as students who will never benefit from the experience of their classrooms?  There is a way to infiltrate and inject the attitude, methods and commitment of master teachers through and into the rest of the teaching team.  Call leading teachers into the leadership mix of each campus.  Then, keep track of outcomes.

2.  Establish an on-the-ground, at-the-campus, working relationship with the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, as well as other public agencies.  In short, move the offices of public benefits to the schools, or at least establish certification or enrollment days for parents from low income families to be able to register for various benefits that can help stabilize poor families for the benefits of students.  Make things easier to access and more customer friendly.  If poverty is our biggest challenge, then let's decide together to attack it systematically!  Why  should eligible parents have to go to an office located somewhere else, to deal with strangers regarding CHIP registration, or Food Stamp enrollment, or assistance with childcare, or housing, or EITC filings?  Those at the top benefit from financial counselors.  Why shouldn't those at the bottom enjoy similar services from benefits counselors.  The key to this campus transformation would be to let parents know that enrollment in benefits is not only for them and their children, but also for the entire school and its success. 

3.  Position principals to function as campus leaders with clear expectations linked to individual student improvement and progress, rather than to the next standardized test.  Each student learns at a different pace and in a different way.  Measure student improvement and index school leaders' performance to the creation of a culture of excellence that encourages students to grow and excel in their own styles over a longer course of evaluation.

4.  Don't shortchange the extra-curricular.  One of the reasons low-income students don't achieve more readily has to do with what I call "experience disparity" when compared to more affluent students.  Learning must take place outside the classroom, as well as inside.  Vocabulary is developed in a process of discovering life both in books and in the laboratory that is our world.  Poor kids need more experienced-based educational opportunities. Let's provide them what they need.  Then, let's tie what is discovered "out there" to what we are doing "in here." Restore music, art, theater and PE in every school no matter what it takes to fund excellence in these important developmental areas of study, expression, performance and curiosity.

5.  Incentivize learning performance and parent involvement with some sort of value added benefit.  Parent involvement with PTA or volunteering at school should be rewarded with something of immediate value, like discount coupons to local stores or gift cards that can be used to buy books, groceries or school clothes.  We make a grave error if we take our eye off the wicked curve ball called poverty.  Reward performance by returning something of real value.

6.  Form a closer working relationship with the City of Dallas, Dallas County, surrounding ISDs, businesses, corporations and universities.  Find ways to engage these other, huge institutions for the immediate benefit of our students today. 

7.  Develop a clear communications strategy for challenging students again and again regarding the importance DISD's mission and vision.  Repeatedly invite every student into the battle.  Rehearse and re-imagine the success that awaits us all if we learn to work together.

8.  Initiate a comprehensive evaluation of middle level administrators to the end that more resources find their way to the classrooms, the teachers and the students.  Schools should not settle for being a job factory for adults.  Streamlining away ineffective efforts, programs and departments should be top of the list for any new leader.  This means our new leader must be tough, proven and ready for battle!

9. Partner with community based non-profits like Avance and The Concilio here in Dallas to organize, train and equip parents to become the primary advocates for their children and for the education of their children.  Community organizing to ensure quality public education should never be considered a threat, but rather an expression of partnership and cooperation.  Getting parents and other community leaders involved will be a key component of any successful administration. 

I suppose my ideas are too simple.  And, I admit I enjoy the luxury of not being in the position of leadership.  But, I care about these children, and I understand the powerful negative impact of poverty on families and school systems.

DISD and poverty

Several years ago, a candidate for the Dallas School board dropped by my office to chat about his campaign efforts.  In the course of our conversation he asked me, "Larry, what do you consider the greatest challenge facing the DISD?"

I remember exactly what I told him:  "That is easy to answer and very, very difficult to overcome.  In a word, the biggest challenge facing our public schools is poverty." 

I'm not sure he liked my answer or agreed with my assessment, but I believe I was right then, and things have only grown more difficult.  So, I read with gratitude the editorial page comment from The Dallas Morning News on Sunday, February 12, 2012.  What follows is one part in the paper's series dubbed "Tactics for Turnaround project" dealing wtih the important enormous work that faces everyone who cares about urban, public education here in Dallas.  I hope you'll take the time to read the entire essay. 

Editorial: Poverty’s role in DISD reform

There’s no way to sugarcoat the serious challenges ahead for DISD’s next superintendent. One of the biggest is that Dallas public schools are overwhelmed by a worsening cycle of poverty. Less than a decade ago, 73 percent of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches at school. Last year, that number had grown to 88 percent, and the trend shows no sign of reversing.

Poverty is by no means a pathway to failure. In fact, despite the growing number of poor children in DISD, dropout rates are declining, four-year graduation rates are up and some standardized test scores are improving. Poverty doesn’t have to be the insurmountable obstacle to success that some might assume.

Still, students living in poverty are far less likely to get the shot at success that all kids deserve. Studies show that, from birth through high school, children growing up in poor households tend to lack crucial developmental skills, proper health and nutrition, and the crucial component of parental involvement in their academic pursuits.

Even before they enter school, kids in poverty are more likely to have stunted vocabularies and be on track to develop debilitating health problems such as obesity. By kindergarten, if a child hasn’t developed a vocabulary of roughly 2,200 words, he or she is already behind, both in literacy and speaking ability. The problem is even worse for those children who don’t speak English; nearly 70 percent of the Dallas district’s student population is Hispanic.

To read the entire opinion click here.

Doubt public education? Time to reconsider!

If you've ever followed a link that I've recommended, please do it now.

You've got to watch the keynote address delivered by a young student of the Dallas Independent School District at this year's convocation.

Watch it here and then tell me what you think.

Public education is an essential element in the renewal of our inner cities. In Dallas about 95% of our students qualify for the free and reduced lunch program. Poverty is our number one problem in the DISD.

The problem is not the children. You'll see what I mean when you watch this video.
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Back 2 School

Public Schools

Last week I attended a meeting during which the idea of education-choice vouchers came up. The person who spoke up in favor of this approach began by asking this simple question: "Do you believe in competition?"

His point was clear. If parents and students have a choice as to where they can attend school and if they can use public money to make those choices, including paying tuition for private education, schools will be forced to compete for the funding and just naturally become better at what they do or go out of business.

Free market forces to the rescue again.

What is always missing in these discussions are the facts facing large urban school districts today. Vouchers simply will not solve the problems facing our public schools. In fact, funding private schools with public funds will only weaken our already struggling public systems where the vast majority of our children attend classes.

A few years ago, a young man dropped by my office to discuss his plans to run for a seat on our school board. He has since become a good friend.

He started the conversation that day by asking me, "Larry, in your opinion, what is the number one problem facing the DISD today?"

I didn't have to think for even a second to reply with my one-word answer, "Poverty."

I pulled this quote from our school district's website:

"The Dallas ISD is the 12th largest school district in the nation with a diverse population of more than 160,000 students. Almost 70 different languages are spoken in the homes of our students. Serving these students are more than 19,000 employees, making the Dallas ISD one of the largest employers in the city."

What the website doesn't report is this astounding fact: 90% of the students in DISD schools come from households that live at or below the poverty level.

Think about that statistic for a moment.

Over 144,000 students living in poverty in the school district serving one of the wealthiest cities in the world!

It is my opinion that the DISD is doing good work.

Even more importantly, I believe the district improves year-by-year.

One reason this is true is that our superintendent, Dr. Michael Hinojosa, understands the reality of poverty and its pervasive affect on our schools.

Until the rest of us come to understand this reality and its impact on students and families, we will continue to struggle as a community when it comes to educating our children, all of our children.

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