District Support Initiative

A new highly-focused District Support Initiative will launch in the 2025-2026 school year to provide support to campuses most critically in need of support through three programs: Pathway to Excellence, Strategic Support Schools, and Strategically Staffed High Schools.

These programs will leverage campus academic, programmatic, and personnel support based on prior year state accountability data paired with current mid-year i-Ready projections, and intensity of poverty. This initiative will truly prioritize campuses of greatest need and support no more than 20% of the district’s 233 schools.

This change means the Accelerating Campus Excellence Initiative (ACE) and High Priority Campus (HPC) program will sunset at the conclusion of the current school year.

The 84 campuses currently part of these two programs will transition into DSI or graduate from the supports. This transition is necessary to ensure that the district is providing the highly-focused support to the campuses with the most critical need.

Pathway to Excellence (PTE)

School Levels: Elementary

Number of Schools: 9

Notes:

High academic focus
Additional academic opportunities and experiences for students
HCM personnel supports, including performance based stipends and early hiring

Strategic Support Schools (SSS)

School Levels: Elementary, Middle Grades

Number of Schools: 30

Notes:

Academic focus
HCM personnel supports, including performance based stipends and early hiring

Strategically Staffed High Schools (SSHS)

School Levels: High School

Number of Schools: 11

Notes:

HCM personnel supports, including performance based stipends and early hiring

Stipends

A revised stipend structure for teachers and campus leaders will be paired with roll-out of the evolved priority support programs, as the district will continue to leverage TIA funds to incent effective teachers to join our PTE, SSS, and SSHS schools.

The 48 existing ACE and HPC schools not identified for participation in the PTE, SSS, and SSHS programs will transition to “graduate” status for the 2025-2026 school year. Employees at the graduate campuses will receive a modified one-year bridge stipend for the 2025-2026 school year only. An early reporting date or additional hour commitments are not required for the ACE and HPC graduate stipends in 2025-2026.

The roster of 2025-2026 campuses with District Support Initiative (DSI) classification can be found here.

To support understanding of the DSI framework, including the revised leader and teacher stipends structure, a webinar is available here.

If you have questions about this transition or the new programs, please fill out this form. You can also send questions to districtsupportinitiative@dallasisd.org.

Resources

2025-26 District Support Initiative Campus Roster

District Support Initiative (DSI) webinar

Frequently Asked Questions