Undaunted by last night’s cold drizzle, around 30 Dallas ISD teachers, custodial workers and other support employees held a quiet march and candlelight vigil outside 3700 Ross Avenue. The reason? DISD’s budget-cutting plan to outsource custodial services and HVAC repairs to a private company. Along with the 471 teachers who…
On the eve of the final school board meeting of the year, I had a long talk with Dallas Independent School District board president Lew Blackburn, who expects tonight’s adios to 2011 will be a lengthy one: “We’ve got a long list of people who want to speak about the…
I see here that on Thursday the Texas Education Agency quietly sent to superintendents its list of Public Education Grant-designated schools — otherwise known as the lowest of the low-performing campuses in the state. Forty-three Dallas ISD campuses make the list, from A. Maceo Smith to Woodrow — with Hillcrest,…
Friends and allies of former Dallas School board president Kathlyn Gilliam quietly mourned her death early Sunday afternoon. She had fought a 13-month battle with cancer. Gilliam, 81, was the first black woman in history to serve on the Dallas school board, elected in 1974 after a court battle to…
Slowly but surely we’re learning more about the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test that’ll hit classrooms in the coming March. As in: For those who may have missed it, the Texas Education Agency has released some sample test questions for grades 3-8. Keep in mind, though, we…
Speaking of SMU …It has officially been invited to join the Big East, and is only too happy to accept. In a conference call with media, commissioner John Marinatto just intro’d the Hilltop to the ranks of the conference, along with the University of Central Florida and the University of…
Moments ago, the National Center for Education Statistics released its so-called Nation’s Report Card, wherein the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences rank fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 21 urban districts using math and reading scores. And for the first time ever the Dallas…
David Abbey is the principal of Kingswood Park Public School in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia, considered a suburb of Sydney. Kingswood Park has its familiar issues — a “socio-economic disadvantage” in large part because of a dwindling student body, “a significant Aboriginal population” and many of its students hailing…
At this very moment, the Dallas independent School District’s Citizens Budget Review Commission — assembled in March to bring fresh eyes to a district budget in need of gutting, thanks in large part to Gov. Rick Perry and the state Legislature — is meeting to discuss two proposals on the…
Below, Dallas Independent School District trustee Edwin Flores hopped in the comments to underscore something he said during yesterday’s discussion concerning Teach for America. Said the trustee yesterday, TFA corps members in the district “outperform two-thirds of all our teachers in math and science” — not just first-year teachers or…
Three hours after their start time, the Dallas ISD board finally got around to discussing whether or not to extend the district’s contract with Teach for America — which would seem like a no-brainer after you read this 2010 Atlantic piece about TFA or this January 2011 study by the…
The Dallas Independent School District board has yet to get down to business; at the moment it’s behind closed doors in executive session. But moments ago it heard from a parade of public speakers, all of whom were awfully well behaved and used their three minutes wisely as they spoke…
I didn’t have time to tune in yesterday for the entirety of the ad hoc committee meeting of some Dallas Independent School District trustees tasked with rewriting the district’s “educational philosophy.” At close to two hours, it wasn’t a short discussion either — it never is when trustees gather ’round…
So much for that proposal to stretch some Dallas Independent School District students’ calendars till July 26. Still: District parents have till Monday to vote on two calendar options, down from the five presented to trustees earlier this month, and on the surface, at least, both run longer than the…
All the ducats for Saturday’s TEDxSMU wingding at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre are long gone, but no matter: As The Hilltop reminds, you can espy the doings from three remote locations: the Texas Theatre, Tech Wildcatters and the AT&T Foundry in Plano. And, of course, it’ll livestream on…
Interesting: I see the Dallas Independent School District has yanked from its Thursday agenda that STAAR End of Course Policy Impact briefing we posted yesterday. Also gone: the supporting docs for the Teach for America review, which we posted last week. At least they haven’t pulled this (yet): Discussion of…
After the jump are two docs parents of kiddos in the Dallas Independent School District might want to look at sooner than later — before Thursday morning, certainly. That’s when the trustees will begin discussing how to factor in the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test scores,…
One week from tomorrow, the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees will settle in for what’s sure to be a calm, reasonable and thoroughly thoughtful discussion about extending the district’s contract with Teach for America through the 2017 school year. The cost of the new deal: $3 million spread…
Just three years ago, 94 percent of the state’s school districts told their kiddos: Just say no to sex. And that was that when it came to sex ed — abstinence only and nothing but, which was working out real well considering that Texas’s teen-pregnancy rate was the third-highest in…
Shortly after the ad hoc committee met to discuss closing those 11 schools yesterday, Dallas Independent School District trustees gathered to receive the district’s latest audit, which shows a fund balance of $135 million — meaning, the district has added close to $100 million to its emergency reserves over the…
As we mentioned Monday, the Dallas ISD trustees just got through discussing a very touchy subject: school consolidations and the repurposing of facilities — or closures, for those who aren’t sensitive to the subject matter. In all, DISD higher-ups are recommending shuttering 11 schools, nine elementary campuses and two middle…
Ah, so this is why Dallas Independent School District board president Lew Blackburn and trustee Bernadette Nutall want to clamp down on public speakers at school board meetings — comments made by Dallas NAACP President Juanita Wallace at the October 20 board meeting. Specifically, they’re furious over Wallace’s assertion at…
