I got a call from Damarcus Offord yesterday. The 20-year-old school-board candidate sounded excited, energized. “Did you read the email I sent?” he asked. “Did you see the poll?” I did not, so then I did. “Damarcus Offord is a candidate running in the May 12 election for DISD School…
Only three out of every 100 black students in Dallas Independent School District graduate ready for college. Among black students entering DISD high schools as freshmen, 28 percent don’t graduate at all. Those are some of the findings in a report DISD District 9 trustee Bernadette Nutall passed on to…
In the spirit of last night’s D-slash-TED-slash-SMU DISD Education Forum at the Kessler — which asked each school board candidate one and only one randomly drawn question — here are some rapid-fire observations from an evening that, while admirably efficient, was over not long after it started. 1. School Board…
A week after a whistle-blowing teacher was suspended without explanation, parents at Botello Elementary in Oak Cliff say they are fed up with the lack of information about what they call the “illegal presence of firearms and drugs in school.” (See correction at bottom.) In a letter to district officials…
In a fiery town hall debate last night, held in Fair Park’s African-American Museum, Dallas ISD trustee Bernadette Nutall and 20-year-old upstart Damarcus Offord both tried their hardest to prove, for better or for worse, that they were nothing like their competitor. The majority of the 100 or so people…
Yesterday, Mike Miles, an Army Ranger turned education reformer, was named the lone finalist for Dallas Independent School District’s superintendent job. Today begins 21 days of tire-kicking, a mandatory waiting and vetting period before the district and Miles can officially wed. Plenty of people will do all that kicking, including…
Prediction: The next few weeks may not be a ton of fun for Mike Miles. Miles, the superintendent of Harrison School District Two in Colorado Springs, was named the lone finalist for the top job in Dallas ISD at a meeting this afternoon. The board, which voted 8-0 (with Carla…
On Monday, we told you the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had published a broad investigation concluding that hundreds of school districts, including Dallas Independent School District, displayed “troubling test patterns” that could indicate widespread cheating. That day, DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said the district had been aggressively investigating suspicious test activity for…
Update, 3 p.m.: Elliot Monteverde-Torres, the teacher suspended after blowing the whistle on his principal, was denied a contract renewal for next school year in the weeks before he sent the complaint letter. See details after the original item. Original item: The News’ Matthew Haag has a story in this…
Alternative elementary schools used for discipline are a “pipeline to prison” and a drain on Dallas Independent School District’s budget that should be closed, a group of DISD parents and activists said today. Alternative school opponents waded across the unkempt lawn at NW Harllee Elementary school in southern Dallas to…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a sweeping investigation over the weekend of possible cheating on standardized tests in dozens of school districts across the country, and Dallas Independent School District made an appearance. The AJC examined test results for 69,000 schools in 49 states and found “high concentrations of suspect scores”…
A reader named Hometown Boy posted the link in the comment section of Bossman’s story yesterday examining Tuesday’s DISD board meeting, and the unwavering recalcitrance of DISD Trustee Carla Ranger. In it, board candidate Damarcus Offord appears to kind of perhaps threaten trustees. Hometown Boy clearly does not want Offord…
I didn’t catch the live version of last night’s Dallas ISD board powwow to winnow its list of superintendent candidates, figuring it would go immediately into closed session and that if I wanted grainy, depressing footage, I’d be better off popping in Inside Job, which I’d somehow missed upon its…
Back in January, the Dallas Independent School District suffered some minor self-inflicted PR wounds when it tried to eliminate a policy that bans schools from holding graduations in places of worship, except for in “unusual” circumstances. After the ACLU did the whole ACLU thing — stern press releases, vague threats…
With a lingering budget crisis and shrinking enrollment, the Dallas Independent School District has eliminated hundreds of teaching jobs in recent years, and this year will be no different. But in a sharp departure from years past, the district is preparing to part ways with hundreds more teachers for reasons…
Kids walking the halls of Prime Prep Academy next fall might have a shot at television stardom because Deion Sanders, the school’s co-founder, is working with entertainment exec Tracey Edmonds (with whom Sanders’ ex-wife accused him of cheating) to make his school a reality … show. That’s right, a reality…
Back in January, Robert watched as the DISD board, which has the amazing skill of stretching out any conversation to 10 times its natural length, debated the qualities they’d like to see in a new superintendent. Last night, Resource Center Dallas CEO Cece Cox sent the board an open letter,…
Make no mistake: The achievement gap is still a seemingly uncrossable gorge, and minority students in Dallas and across the country are still pretty much hosed. But in a few key areas at least, black and Latino students are slightly less hosed here than they are in other large, urban…
Like I was saying, or writing, earlier this morning …When Edwin Flores announced he wasn’t going to seek re-election to the Dallas Independent School District board two weeks ago, the District 1 trustee said he’d hold off on making an endorsement. At the time, only one other candidate had announced:…
More or less moments after Edwin Flores announced he wouldn’t be running for another term as Dallas Independent School District trustee, a Friend of Unfair Park wondered: “Is he going to give Educate Dallas their money back?” Referring, of course, to the $10,000 pledge made by the Dallas Regional Chamber-connected…
Whilst trolling the Dallas ISD’s website last night, I noticed that the district has posted its 2012-2013 District Improvement Plan, a 21-page look at all that ails DISD and offers general fix-its to accommodate its myriad needs. And needs there are: The word appears dozens of time over a handful…
I called Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander early this morning to see if that lone, anonymous teacher’s call for a leap day of protest went answered by his peers. No, says Dahlander in a statement just dispatched from 3700 Ross. Not at all:The percentage of Dallas ISD teachers…
