National Study Critical of Dallas ISD Reforms, published 4-18-13

On 4-18-13 a national study was published that is very critical of many of the educational reforms that have been inflicted on Dallas ISD over the past year, often with great cost and pain. See http://www.epi.org/files/2013/bba-rhetoric-trumps-reality.pdf for a full copy of that study sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute.

Below are selected details from the study as time is available to study this report and double-check the statistics presented.

From page 39 in this report:

"Indeed, in Washington, D.C., teacher turnover was higher under Rhee and IMPACT than ever before, but apparently not due largely to the elimination of bad teachers, but rather to an increase in voluntary exits by experienced teachers as well as to their “excessing” and replacement by novices."

This is now happening in Dallas ISD under Mike Miles.
From page 70 in this report:

"Again, the highest-risk students have suffered the most from the upheavals reforms have produced. It is the students in under-resourced schools, who have lost literature and poetry to vocabulary drills and seen their curricula stripped of art, music, and physical education to make room for increased test preparation, who are most likely to see their schools shuttered when their test scores do not rise quickly enough. These children face longer and potentially more dangerous commutes to school, the loss of a neighborhood hub, and, sometimes, repeated disruptions of friendships and relationships with teachers" 

This process started years ago in Dallas ISD with the closing of 11 schools, mostly in poverty stricken areas of Dallas, without paying attention to national research on K-8 achievement patterns.  Transitions to K-8 schools could have saved some of those schools by more fully utilizing the buildings.  Changing K-5 schools into K-8 schools is shown by research to accelerate achievement, making them even more attractive competition for the expanding charter schools.  But no such efforts to avoid closing schools were considered in DISD.  Instead efforts were continued for the opening of charter schools in this target area. It appears such destructive transitions may be about to continue under Mike Miles.

This is a very painful report, especially for anyone who tries to keep up with what is happening within DISD, and notices how many methods documented as failures are now being used in DISD.