At the start of this school year, Superintendent Mike Miles challenged Dallas ISD staff to “Think Differently and Act Courageously” in pursuit of the bold goals laid out in the Destination 2020 plan. His recent report on mid-year progress showed achievement gains in every area, affirming that the district is on a path toward student success. For the first time, the district started the school year with nearly zero teacher vacancies, a feat the Human Capital Management department aims to repeat for 2015-2016. In another first for the district, parents enrolled nearly 10,000 children in pre-kindergarten. With early childhood as…

The George W. Bush Institute recently released its 2015 Mayors’ Report Card on Education which shows Dallas ISD students performed better than expected when compared to other districts with similar levels of poverty based on data from the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) National Report Card. Ninty percent of Dallas ISD students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and according to the report, were expected to make a score of approximately 920 on the combined NAEP student achievement report. In actuality, Dallas ISD African-American students scored 934 and Hispanic students scored 968. This score is derived from the…

The Dallas ISD Board of Trustees will discuss a plan for the future of the district’s facilities at its briefing on Thursday, Feb. 12. While trustees will be briefed on the first draft of a long term, comprehensive program and facilities plan, they will be asked to consider taking the first steps on a “Bridge Plan” designed to address the district’s most pressing and immediate needs. The Bridge Plan aims to provide additional classroom space to serve more pre-K students, add more public school choice campuses to give parents more options for their children and build new facilities or renovate…