Report Highlights DISD Progress, Problems: College Readiness Cited As Lacking, but Leaders, Math, Science Praised

By Kent Fischer, The Dallas Morning News

Nov. 30–A year after Dallas school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa staked his reputation on remaking DISD into the nation’s best urban school district, a national advocacy group has found progress, but much work still ahead.

The group, the National Center for Educational Accountability, will present to district trustees today a one-year review of what DISD has accomplished so far and a look at what’s ahead.

The report is a mixed bag. The consultants found progress at the district’s highest levels, including tougher, deeper curricula in math and science, and administrators who are energized about the changes. Those leaders view the changes as necessary, not just passing fads they can wait out, the report says.

But the group also will present a sobering report on the obstacles ahead: teachers not yet on board with the effort, a growing achievement gap between black and Hispanic students, and a dismal 3 percent of graduating students with a sufficient Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills score to ensure success in college.

“Although the amount of progress over the past year is truly remarkable, [the NCEA is] unable to assign true impact to any of these activities undertaken to date,” the report states. “The ultimate measure of effectiveness will be increases in student learning, which simply cannot be measured in this short term.”

The problem is that there is only the short term. Dr. Hinojosa set a four-year deadline to reform the district, and the first year of that window just closed.

District leaders say they’re keenly aware of the work to be done but are nonetheless pleased with the progress made since Dr. Hinojosa laid out his plans last November.

Denise Collier, the deputy superintendent leading the reforms, said the district must get more students into tougher classes.

“One problem certainly is that we do not have enough kids on that ‘college-ready’ ramp,” she said.

In DISD, just 38 percent of graduates go on to some sort of higher education, the fifth-lowest rate among Texas’ six big-city school districts. And thousands of other youths never graduate at all.

Another problem is school technology. The consultants found that the district’s curriculum improvements have outpaced its infrastructure. Too many teachers, the report found, lack the computers and Internet access to make use of the new technology-rich resources.

The district is revising how it creates its budget, shifting resources to improvement efforts that need more funding. That process is just beginning. The 2007-08 budget will focus on freeing up money for the technology upgrades teachers need to make use of the new curriculum resources, Dr. Collier said.

That’s the same process the district used last year to hire 120 new instructional coaches to work in the district’s lowest-performing schools “with no new money,” Dr. Collier said. To pay for the positions, the district cut back on some programs and eliminated some low-level jobs.

The consultants found frustration among many educators at higher-performing schools that have yet to receive such additional help.

“There appears to be no one filling that role for the many schools that do not have access to coaches or school improvement team leader resources,” the report states. “The district should carefully consider how to develop all teachers’ capacity to use [the new curricula] in their planning.”

Consultants commended the district for its new math and science curricula, which they said clearly outline what students should know and be able to do. The group also applauded the district’s efforts to retrain principals to emphasize their role as their schools’ instructional leaders, instead of administrative paper-pushers.

The next step, the report says, is getting principals the time and resources they’ll need to implement that training and to make sure they truly understand the steps they must take to drive better teaching at their campuses.

To that end, the district is requiring principals to work an additional 10 days a year, time that is dedicated to training and development workshops, Dr. Collier said. The district also has revamped how it recruits principals, placing more emphasis on identifying “rising stars” with strong teaching backgrounds as potential future principals.

E-mail kfischer@dallasnews.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News

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