Inside Dallas ISD

Billy Earl Dade Middle School has seen huge gains this year, from a decreased failure rate and increased enrollment to a much improved campus climate. Dade Middle School Principal Tracie Washington said the ACE initiative, which brings together several components to boost student success and create a strong sense of community, has been the key factor in the school’s remarkable transformation. “Our turnaround has been phenomenal. It has allowed us to join in with our community partners, our staff, our parents and our students with one vision and one goal,” Washington said. Washington was named a Dallas ISD Principal of…

Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy teacher William Adkins is among the 50 teachers in 27 states and the District of Columbia awarded the professional development grants by the Institute of International Education and American Institute for Foreign Study Foundation in recognition of his outstanding work. Adkins is the only teacher within the Dallas Independent School District,to receive national recognition for successfully integrating global perspectives and exchanges into his classroom. The award will fund Adkins’ ongoing efforts to globalize his instructional environment and advocate for global competencies in curriculum. He has also received awards from the Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad, Japan Fulbright…

Kassandra Castañeda, a fourth-grader at Frank Guzick Elementary School in Dallas, is this year’s Best of Show winner in Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s (DART) 2016 Student Art Contest. Castañeda’s winning artwork themed “DART to discovery” will be recognized as the best of more than 2,200 entries at a Thursday, April 28, ceremony to be held at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) at 6 p.m. The artwork will be displayed on the side of a DART bus traveling across the agency’s 13-city service area through September. Castañeda took home a $1,000 cash prize for winning the contest The Dallas ISD’s student’s…

Robotics teams from Winnetka Elementary and Emmett J. Conrad High have advanced to the world championship competitions of their respective grade levels. Winnetka will represent the Dallas Independent School District in the world championships in Louisville, Ky., the week of April 18, competing against 150 elementary school teams from across the world. Meanwhile, Conrad’s Robochargers team is heading to the world championship in St. Louis in late April to compete against 300 other teams from other countries. The achievement is particularly special at Winnetka, which initiated its robotics program this school year. “I believe this achievement is commendable especially since it is the…