“One of my favorite things about jazz is how it brings people together. You can go across the world to a country that doesn’t speak anything close to your language. You can play with another person and you don’t speak, you can’t interpret each other’s words. But, then if you sit down and play music, it’s like you speak the exact same language. Music connects and brings people together.” These are the words spoken by Tinashe M., a senior piano major at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.  Tinashe comes from a family with a…

Dallas ISD is rolling out an innovative way to bring career training directly to students. Career and Technical Education recently launched a trailer, known as the Career Exploration Mobile Lab, which provides hands-on learning experiences, equipping students with practical skills and industry knowledge. “The inspiration was to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world career possibilities for 7th-grade students,” said Jessica Borges, project manager for CTE. “We wanted to create an engaging and interactive way to introduce them to high-skill, high-wage, and high-demand career paths that they might not otherwise encounter.” The idea for a mobile classroom and finding…

“Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod. Felt in the days when hope unborn had died.” These words from the Black National Anthem echo the journey of resilience that generations of Black scholars, educators, and leaders have walked. From the determined steps of students walking down Cochran and Hall streets in the 1890’s to attend Colored School No. 1 to the trailblazers shaping Dallas ISD today, the road has never been easy. Yet, the seeds planted long ago continue to bear fruit History doesn’t exist without a starting point. For 58 years, Colored School No. 1, opened in…

For years, a state-of-the-art film and music facility at New Tech High School at B.F. Darrell sat unused until Trenton Starks brought it to life when he became the school’s film teacher.  The school’s film pathway, which Starks said is Dallas ISD’s hidden gem, was the vision of Channel Hutchinson, principal at New Tech.  “Initially, our career pathways were only in animation,” she said. “I worked with school leadership to add a pathway in film. We now have film, animation and gaming.”   Starks has taken the facility and created a comprehensive film program and student film festival. This has given…