All ACE campus staff receives $400 Target gift cards in surprise announcement

More than 300 teachers and staff at the seven Dallas ISD ACE schools were surprised with $400 Target gift cards at assemblies at each campus on Wednesday.

An anonymous donor provided the gifts to the staff in recognition of their efforts and success at improving extraordinary student educational outcomes.

The seven campuses are part of the district’s Accelerating Campus Excellence (ACE) program, an effort to incentivize the top teachers and principals to relocate and work at some of the districts lowest-performing schools.

Six of the seven campuses were removed from the state’s 'Improvement Required' list after the first school year the program was implemented, and all seven campuses have shown significant improvement in student achievement. The seven ACE campuses are: Anne Webb Blanton Elementary School, Billy Earl Dade Middle School, Edison Middle Learning Center, Roger Q. Mills Elementary School, Umphrey Lee Elementary School, and Sarah Zumwalt Middle School.