Dallas ISD continues to show strong gains in academic achievement as measured by the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) A through F accountability system. With a five-point gain, the district has earned a “B” for the second year in a row, an increase from 81 to 86 points. Fifty-seven percent of all district schools earned an A or B in Dallas ISD’s Local Accountability System, which holds schools to higher standards than even TEA.

The A-F grades are a snapshot of how well schools are meeting the needs of students, whether a school is growing its students, how teachers, staff and parents rate their schools, and what students think about their school’s instruction, engagement and culture.

TEA accolades in District 9:

Several District 9 schools are rightly celebrating their new ratings. Congratulations to these schools’ devoted teachers and administrators, students and parents for your effort and hard work. 

Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School	A rating with 98 points
Booker T. Washington HSPVA	A rating with 91 points
Henry B. Gonzalez Elementary	A rating with 90 points
Charles Rice Learning Center	A rating with 90 points

There is a special sense of pride at Martin Luther King Jr. Learning Center where students achieved tremendous academic growth—rising from an “F” to a “B” school this year. The improvement is among the most impressive academic turnarounds in the district.  A member of the Accelerating Campus Initiative, or ACE program, King is set to become an exploratory arts campus next school year, affording students the opportunity to explore piano, dance, vocal music and visual art starting as early as pre-K.

Board members have acted to reward staff at another ACE campus. At Billy Dade Middle School, teacher leaders, administrators, counselors and librarians at are sharing in $240,000 in stipends approved by board members. The stipends are incentives designed to retain effective campus leaders at schools where they are most needed.

In other campus news:

Debaters from Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School placed in the top 16 schools in the recent Plano Senior Debate Tournament. Seniors Valerie Gutierrez and (first-timer) Da’Shayla Ford played prominent roles in the competition. When “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” opens on Broadway in November, Rangel student Skye Turner will be onstage performing as a young version of the musical legend.

Students at John Ireland Elementary and Piedmont Global Middle School have each launched new orchestra programs on campus. To support reading in grades 1-3, Ireland is joining forces with Catch Up and Read and Readers2Leaders to promote its early learners.  

At CityLab High School, ninth-grader Immanuel Brinson was awarded a bronze medal in the NAACP ACT-SO National Competition for his memorial design project based on civil rights leader Asa Philip Randolph.  The project was created in cooperation with Perkins+Will Architects. CityLab 10^th-graders have designed a mural as a community-based art project funded by Downtown Dallas, Inc. and the CityLab High School Foundation. The piece, “Zeal, Zest, Verve” will take shape this fall.

Mark your calendar for the 2019 College Fair

Dallas ISD is sponsoring our FREE annual Districtwide College Fair, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 18, at Ellis Davis Field House. This is a major opportunity for 11^th and 12^th-graders to meet college representatives, ask questions and collect information about admissions and financial aid.  All high school counselors are signing up students to attend and receive free transportation.