As the nation's eleventh largest school district, Dallas Independent School District serves more than 164,500 students who come from homes where 58 different languages are spoken. Operating with a $1 billion dollar budget, DISD employs 19,234 employees including 10,500 teachers in 218 schools.
1 Nov 2001
Superintendent To Join Ben Milam First Graders Monday To Read, Discuss New Reading Program in DISD
DALLAS—Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Moses on Monday will join Mrs. Sandra Boston's first-grade class at Ben Milam Elementary to read to a class of 21 students and talk about Open Court Textbook Series, an innovative reading program the district began using this year.
The superintendent will arrive at Ben Milam at 1:30 p.m. Monday, November 5. The school is located at 4200 McKinney Avenue. He will read to Mrs. Boston's students in Room 108. A mult-box will be made available to the news media.
"The ability to read is a priority in DISD, and we are continuing to focus our attentions on programs and initiatives that encourage our schoolchildren to master their reading skills," Moses said. "As a district, we have made important improvements in reading test scores this year, but we must never be satisfied. As part of our efforts to better educate our students, we are always emphasizing how important reading skills are to our youngsters."
Other important reading initiative events for the upcoming weeks are listed below.
• On Friday, November 9, DISD high school students will take part in a Patriotic Assembly at Loos Field House, located at 3815 Spring Valley Road. During this event, students will read portions of important U.S. documents such as the constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
• On Saturday, November 10, the district is sponsoring a reading summit at the Dallas World Trade Center. Moses is scheduled to address 1,500 teachers and educators from throughout the state and talk about the new reading programs in the district.
• On Thursday, November 15, Moses will take part in Hexter Elementary's Reading Under the Stars program, the school's kick off for the distribution of Reading is Fundamental books to students. The event will take place at 7 p.m. in the school's cafeteria. Moses will read one of the RIF books to students during the program. Hexter is located at 9720 Waterview Road.
• On Tuesday, November 20, Dallas Schools Roundtable, a new cable televison show, will feature information about reading programs in the district. Dallas Schools Roundtable will air on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
The superintendent also said that other district administrators will be participating in the reading summit and other reading initiatives in the district. Interviews in English and Spanish regarding the district's reading initiatives may be scheduled by calling Ivette Cruz Weis in communication services at 972-925-3905.
When Moses became superintendent in January, he set improving reading initiatives and reading test scores as high priorities for the district. As a result, reading test scores improved in the district significantly. Statistical analysis of the spring 2001 scores from the Stanford 9/Aprenda achievement tests taken by almost 102,500 DISD students show a dramatic rise in reading comprehension and math scores that have not been mirrored since the early 1990s.