Inside Dallas ISD

A total solar eclipse will be visible in Dallas on April 8, 2024, and Mark Broughton, director of the Environmental Education Center, is already preparing to help middle school students take advantage of the rare opportunity thanks to a Junior League of Dallas Grant for Innovative Teaching. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for everybody, including the students,” Broughton said. “But you have to wear solar viewing glasses of some sort to look at the sun that day.” Broughton applied for the Grants for Innovative Teaching—which are designed to help improve education in Dallas ISD with support for unique programs outside school…

Charlie Diaz Rivera, a first-year teacher at Career Institute East, had been supervising Dallas ISD students in the electrical technology field at one of the district’s industry partners. He is now living his dream of creating opportunities for students and as an Electrical Technology teacher at the school. “I was being given this opportunity to help kids to succeed in life, and I saw this as a door that was opening,” Diaz Rivera said. “This was something that I always wanted to do, and now I’m able to do it.” Becky Barker, industry partner coordinator for Career Institute East, said…

As the district moves to the beat of opportunity in classrooms throughout the district, one department is creating opportunities for students to grow, explore their interests and develop life skills outside the classroom. By providing students the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities, Student Activities is improving the overall educational experience of Dallas ISD students. Director of Student Activities Leonidas Patterson believes the department’s theme for this year—Stay the course—communicates its singular focus on the district’s priority of making sure that all students have the opportunity to get involved in at least one extracurricular or co-curricular activity each year. “I…

Principal Monica Marquez has spent the majority of her career at Louise W. Kahn Elementary School, as a teacher when it opened and then working to become an academic coordinator, assistant principal, and now principal of her home campus. It was during her time as a third-grade teacher that she first met student Selene Ramos—who is now assistant principal at Kahn Elementary. “Selene was very talkative and always came dressed to the nines,” Marquez said. “She was a good student who was always a go-getter wanting to help others, and that really has not changed in the 20 years we’ve…