As the nation's eleventh largest school district, Dallas Independent School District serves more than 160,000 students who come from homes where 58 different languages are spoken. Operating with a $1 billion dollar budget, DISD employs 18,613 employees including 10,000 teachers in 220 schools.
3 May 2001
Keeping in mind the Dallas Independent School District's responsibility to provide all children with the opportunity to learn, Mike Moses, general superintendent, has announced several new initiatives to be launched next year.
"We have been busy during my first three months, not trying to create busy work, but hopefully creating some common sense initiatives that will help us elevate our students, our district and ourselves," Dr. Moses said. "These research-based initiatives directly support the district's academic goals. They will better prepare students for success in the classroom, success on TAAS and success in life."
The initiatives are divided into three categories: student, teacher and resource. The student initiatives focus on academic programs to help ensure that all student have access to quality education. The teacher initiatives are designed to provide teachers with the skills and resources needed for success in the classroom and to support employees in all positions. The resource initiatives are tools that support improved student achievement and teacher effectiveness.
Student Initiatives:
Three of the student initiatives are designed to improve learning for students whose native language is not English. The Restructured Bilingual/ESL Initiative will move students, over time, from having predominately Spanish-based instruction to completely English-based instruction. This initiative focuses on prekindergarten to the third grade. The Newcomer Initiative deals with recent immigrants in grades 3-6. This program gives students a jumpstart on English by means of a structured and sheltered immersion approach. After one year in the program, the students are assigned to ESL classrooms. For students in grades 7-12, an English Language Institute has been created. Middle and high school campuses will have the option of placing recent immigrant students in the English Language Institute. The institute will provide intensive English instruction, beginning English reading skills, math content and English terminology.
Two other student initiatives create a new Dyslexia Program and an update of the Special Education Department so it is in compliance with state and federal laws. The remaining four student initiatives are designed to help students stay in schools. These initiatives are the Expansion of Campuses and Central Learning Communities, Campus Learning Communities in Middle Schools, a Valued Youth Program and Mentor Program. The targeted population for these campus learning communities are students who are over-age or in need of a nontraditional learning environment. These students have access to computer-assisted instruction, accelerated credit recovery, a nontraditional classroom environment, career training and counseling. The nontraditional environment also offers students flexible hours with morning, afternoon and night schedules.
Teacher Initiatives:
The Comprehensive Training for Teachers and Administrators Initiative is aligned with one of the district's goals of nurturing and training all employees. It ensures a qualified teacher in every classroom; effective leadership for every campus; high levels of continuous learning for all employees; and application of learning to benefit students. The other teacher initiative deals with the district's new appraisal system. The district has adopted the Texas Education Agency's Professional Development and Appraisal System, known as PDAS. This research-based system has student performance and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills links and supports the identification of professional development activities that will make a difference in the classroom.
Resource Initiatives:
The User Friendly Data Initiative continues ongoing efforts by the district to improve the presentation of information so that campuses can utilize the information to increase student achievement. Among the other resource initiatives include the use of new science and reading textbook series.
For news and information about the Dallas Independent School District, visit www.dallasisd.org