12 Sep 2007
District is making steady progress on Dallas Achieves Transformation Plan since adoption four months ago
DALLAS–Stating that the district is "on track and making steady progress to ensure that every student graduates from Dallas ISD college- and work force-ready," Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa provided an update and shared "early wins" on the Dallas Achieves! Transformation Plan at a briefing earlier today. Formally adopted by Dallas ISD Trustees last April, the Dallas Achieves! Transformation Plan represents the district's official plan for improving the academic achievement and performance of all students within Dallas ISD. The Transformation Plan serves as the road map for Dallas ISD to win the Broad Prize for Urban Education by 2010.
During his remarks, Dr. Hinojosa emphasized the changing culture of Dallas ISD to focus on students and the campuses that serve them. He said the goal is for principals and teachers to devote dramatically more time and energy on their students and what's happening in the classroom.
"Over the course of the last few months, several significant steps have been taken to accomplish the Dallas Achieves initiatives," said Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa. "The board of trustees has provided strong leadership, direction and high expectations of their goal to transform the district so that all students are college and workforce ready."
The Transformation Plan focuses on two key components – an Education Plan (emphasizing rigor, aligned common curriculum, instructional improvement via data and professional learning) and a comprehensive set of recommendations (and commendations), developed in conjunction with Dallas ISD staff and trustees with the Dallas Achieves Commission, an influential group of Dallas business and community leaders.
"Everyone realizes that transformational change will not happen overnight, but the board and district staff are moving in the same direction to improve the quality of instruction for all students," said Dallas ISD Board of Trustees President Jack Lowe. "I am encouraged by the early progress that we are making and am as optimistic now about the district as I have ever been."
Dr. Hinojosa's first step was to form the infrastructure to drive and manage the transformation effort in a coherent, holistic manner. Arnold Viramontes, Chief Transformation Officer, will lead a 10-member blue-ribbon team of educators that includes a former Area Superintendent with extensive experience working with the community, a former principal at Frazier Elementary School who led the school to five consecutive years of exemplary performance, and a highly effective instructional coach to develop what is considered the district's most valuable assets – its teachers.
"One of the key components of the Dallas Achieves initiative will be in changing the overall culture of the district," said Viramontes. "The first step took place over the summer with a restructuring of central administration to be more service-oriented to campuses."
Viramontes listed a number of key milestones reached since the Transformation Plan was adopted just four months ago. Progress on the Education Plan component includes a newly designed and rigorous "vertically aligned" curriculum developed in conjunction with the National Center for Educational Accountability (NCEA) and Institute for Learning (IFL). At the start of school, the district introduced the program with an easy-to-understand "refrigerator curriculum" chart so parents can track and support their children's efforts.
In addition, approximately 2,000 campus instructional leaders (principals and teachers) actively participated this summer in five well-received Dallas Achieves Summer Institutes focused on proven methods for teaching and learning. Other learning opportunities, professional development, coaching and online curriculum access and support have been established for teachers as well.
Dr. Hinojosa said a popular new "high-needs" school incentive program is providing financial incentives to attract top principals and teachers to hard-to-staff positions in the Superintendent's Learning Community schools, which represent the lowest performing middle and high schools in the district, as well as reconstituted schools and other schools identified as "hard to staff". In addition, the district is continuing to provide financial incentives for specific subjects, such as science, math and other core subjects.
As a result, Dr. Hinojosa reported that these schools were close to fully staffed at the start of school, a clear contrast with historical staffing. This program is expected to expand, thanks to Dallas ISD being named a recipient of a Teacher Incentive Fund grant from the federal government.
Other key accomplishments include kicking off the start of school with a service-oriented "Day 1" approach (i.e. getting textbooks in classrooms, having contingency coolers and box fans for failing A/C units), and reducing the number of layers between the superintendent and the campuses from 11 to no more than seven.
The district also has created a Superintendent's Learning Community so struggling schools will get the attention and resources required to improve their performance. This will be led by last year's Principal of the Year.
In addition, Dallas ISD is expanding its "high school redesign" initiative. The Early College High School pilot completed a successful first year and is gearing up for its second at DCCCD's Mountain View College. This innovative partnership with gives students the opportunity to obtain both a high-school diploma and an Associates Degree in four years!
Dr. Hinojosa reported that high schools will benefit from class loads for core teachers decreasing from 6 to 5 periods, reducing student/teacher ratios from 165:1 to 125:1 (a change of almost 25%) Teachers now have more time for planning and principals have been trained to work with teachers so planning time delivers maximum results.
A big academic boost for high school students will come from two T-STEM (Texas Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics initiative) grants awarded to Dallas ISD, one for Emmett Conrad High School to develop and implement programs to enhance math, science, engineering and technology on that campus, and the other, in conjunction with Texas A&M, to assist all campuses in the North Texas region that have a T-STEM initiative.
Next steps for the district, according to Dr. Hinojosa, include providing school choice of college-ready programs for secondary students (including middle-school students), developing college-ready "courses of study" for all secondary students, creating alternative paths to graduation (such as a virtual high school experience or self-paced, results-driven course of study) and continuing to re-organize and improve on the mission to serve campuses.