Inside Dallas ISD

Sunset High School varsity cheer caption Jourdyn Hawkins knows how to start and finish strong. Last fall, Hawkins made Sunset athletic history as she was one of four cheerleaders from Sunset High School to make the National Cheerleading Association’s (NCA) All-American team.  Now, as her senior year quickly comes to an end, it is on another high note as her team took first place in the Game Day category at the “Sock it To Em” Nationals competition on April 18. Hawkins made further athletic history this year when she was the first-ever Sunset student invited to apply to join NCA…

Every teacher at Lincoln High School got a big surprise on Thursday, April 29: new jewelry from Kendra Scott and a delicious lunch spread! Meanwhile, Kendra Scott is running a promotion on its website on April 29 where, for anyone who makes a purchase on their website and uses the promo code “danigivesback,” 20 percent of that purchase will go back to Lincoln High School. The Texas-based fashion jewelry maker gave the Lincoln teachers the new jewelry and lunch to help kick off Teacher Appreciation Week–which is May 3–7–at the campus. Lincoln High School Principal Johnna Weaver thanked Kendra Scott…

The Dallas ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved waiving the use of the spring Assessment of Course Performance (ACP) as a weighted portion of the semester average for middle and high school students. Removing the ACP as an assessment will give teachers and schools more time to focus on addressing learning loss caused by the pandemic. The ACP has typically been used as an end of semester exam to measure student progress and determine instructional priorities. Instead of administering the ACP for the spring, the district will prioritize the focus on end-of-year MAP testing. Waiving the spring ACPs will also…

Dallas ISD is home to championship coaches. In 1997, Coach Devon Fortson arrived at Kimball High School and started a wrestling program at a time when most inner-city schools didn’t have many students interested in wrestling. At the time, there was no funding for a wrestling team, so Fortson, affectionately known as “Coach Buck,” had to depend on the benevolence of friends and other area coaches who donated uniforms and equipment. Twenty-four years later, Kimball’s wrestling program has grown into a championship program. The story really began in 1979 when Coach Buck was a student athlete who wrestled for Kimball.…