Making the grade

The Dallas Independent School District continues to meet all four of the state’s accountability standards according to results released today by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

In all four categories—student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps and postsecondary readiness—Dallas ISD outperformed thresholds set by the state. The district’s official rating for 2014 from TEA is “Met Standard.”

One hundred eighty four Dallas ISD schools, more than 80 percent of the total number in the school district, met all required performance standards. All totaled, 125 Dallas ISD elementary schools met the performance standards, as well as 31 middle schools and 28 high schools.

“The state’s performance standards are becoming more rigorous year after year and the vast majority of our campuses are rising to the challenge,” said Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles. “While there is clearly still much work to do, Dallas teachers and administrators took positive steps forward this year on behalf of our students. The main purpose of our Destination 2020 plan is to promote student success through a high-quality education. We will hold ourselves to high expectations and continue to work hard for our students.”

This is the second year that the state is using a more rigorous index-based approach to academic accountability to measure district and student performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and end-of-course (EOC) exams. The 2014 ratings generally apply one of two labels to districts and campuses, “Met Standard” or “Improvement Required,” to determine performance.

“What is most encouraging is that Dallas ISD’s strongest category is in the area of student progress (Index 2) where more than 97% of our campuses are meeting the performance targets set by the state,” said Assistant Superintendent Dr. Cecilia Oakeley, Evaluation and Assessment. “Almost as encouraging is that more than 200 district campuses met or exceeded state performance targets for closing performance gaps (Index 3) and post-secondary readiness (Index 4). Though each performance index had additional requirements for schools to reach this year, our campuses rose to the challenge.”

To be rated as “Met Standard,” the district and each campus must meet all applicable index

targets: four targets for the district, three targets for high schools, and four targets for elementary and middle schools. If any one or more of the index targets is missed, the rating is “Improvement Required.”

Below is a listing of the four key indexes, target scores set by the state for each index and Dallas ISD’s score on each:

In 2014, schools may also earn up to six or seven achievement distinction designations, depending upon school type, when certain criteria are met: high performance in one of four subjects: 1) reading/English language arts, 2) mathematics, 3) science, and 4) social studies, or 5) postsecondary readiness, 6) closing performance gaps, and 7) being grouped in the top quarter of their comparison group on Index 2—Student Progress.

Fifty eight percent of Dallas ISD campuses, or 129 schools, earned at least one distinction designation. Fifteen campuses (listed at the bottom of this release) earned the maximum number of distinctions. The largest number of distinctions earned by campuses was for Reading/English-Language Arts results, followed by closing the performance gap.

“There is a lot of positive information in this report about individual campuses,” said Miles. “Parents will now have yet another snapshot to help determine the performance of their child’s school. While this information is helpful, it is important to remember that these results are only part of the picture of a school’s overall success.”

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Dallas ISD Schools that earned the maximum number of distinctions in 2014

1. School of Science and Engineering at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center
2. Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
3. Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School
4. School of Health Professions at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center
5. School for the Talented and Gifted at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center
6. W.E. Greiner Exploratory Arts Academy
7. Ewell D. Walker Middle School
8. William B. Travis Academy/Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted
9. Dallas Environmental Science Academy
10. George Bannerman Dealey Montessori Vanguard and International Academy
11. John Q. Adams Elementary School
12. Jill Stone Elementary School at Vickery Meadow
13. Victor H. Hexter Elementary School
14. Martha Turner Reilly Elementary School
15. Eladio R. Martinez Learning Center