Dallas ISD students continue to close achievement gap, outperform state, urban districts

Superintendent Stephanie S. Elizalde, Ed.D. provided an update to Dallas ISD’s Board of Trustees reporting significant progress in closing achievement gaps among students in grades 3 through 8. In comparison to the state and other urban districts, remarkable gains were made in Approaches and Meets for reading and mathematics. 

Reading Achievements:

Dallas ISD is above pre-pandemic levels in reading for grades 3 through 8 and narrows the achievement gap within seven points of the state at the Approaches level. At the Meets level, the district improved to 45% of students reading on grade level while the state was at 51%, closing the achievement gap by almost 33%.

There was an accelerated growth with African American students in Approaches level. Now at 67%, compared to 70% at the state level, this is the smallest gap in this student group since prior to the pandemic.

Emergent Bilinguals and English Learners are outperforming the same group at the state level in reading at the Approach and Meets levels.

Mathematics Achievements:

The district continues to make strides in mathematics, with 71% of students achieving the Approaches level, closing the achievement gap by only one point from the state.

A significant milestone was achieved as African American students in Dallas ISD now outperform their state peers in mathematics at the Approaches and Meets levels.

Emergent Bilinguals and English Learners also outperformed the state in mathematics at the Approaches and Meets level. 

View the full report from the September Board Briefing here.