Dallas ISD is making strides to ensure students get the attention they deserve.
At the October Board of Trustees briefing, Tiffany Huitt-Powell, chief of school leadership, shared next steps to ensure students receive the best quality education possible, especially at campuses with recent D and F STAAR ratings.
This is part of the district’s larger goals and constraints for the 2025-2026 school year, which aimed to keep the student-to-teacher ratios low at D-and-F-rated elementary and middle schools. Specifically, Dallas ISD set out to have a 19.8 ratio at those identified schools.
The district already meets that standard, and leadership is now looking at processes to ensure it is sustainable.
That includes:
- Establish guardrails to maintain low ratios year-round, including roster caps, identify overflow staffing, and weekly enrollment monitoring.
- Concentrate the smallest classes in high-need sections, while pairing them with strong Tier 1 instruction and intervention support.
- Implement an evaluation plan quarterly to ensure class-size investments translate into measurable student growth and retention gains.
During the meeting, Trustee Dan Micciche asked whether the district has data showing how many small classes are led by distinguished teachers, emphasizing that pairing top educators with small groups makes a difference in student outcomes.
“Ideally, we’ll have a highly effective teacher in a small class,” he said.
