How many of the Commissioners have studied the 102 page report given to them by members of the Our Children Our Schools Coalition? Download that document at http://www.dfpe.org/pdf/Questions_on_Home_Rule_in_DISD_with_Election_Study_2014_STO.pdf .
It appears much of what has been said these past 7 months, and usually repeatedly, has been ignored. It was not proven false, or corrected, just ignored.
Then there was a statement during the 1-5-15 meeting by one commissioner about the Dallas Achieves Commission which was frighteningly misleading and false.
They correctly stated that the Dallas Achieves Commission had 4 years and $20 million to do their work, but then incorrectly said they achieved "nothing."
That statement demonstrated a lack of awareness of DISD graduation rate progress that started in 2007 as the Dallas Achieves Commission was beginning their third year, and then set annual graduation rate records for the next 6 years! The $20 million donated for the work of Dallas Achieves was some of the best invested money DISD ever managed! The gain was worth many times that amount for Dallas!
Here are a set of charts posted by Dallas ISD in 2012 that help show what happened. This is the time period during which Dallas ISD was rated as one of the most improved urban districts in the nation!
The first chart below is for all DISD students covering the years 2007 through 2011. It shows Dallas ISD was improving at more than twice the rate of the rest of Texas!
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| Dallas ISD Completion Rates compared with Texas 2007-2011 (Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.) |
Below are more specific reports for the different population groups who make up DISD.
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| Dallas ISD Completion Rates for African-American Students 2007-2011 (Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.) |
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| Dallas ISD Completion Rates for Hispanic Students 2007-2011 (Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.) |
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| Dallas ISD Completion Rates for LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students 2007-2011 (Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.) |
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| Dallas ISD Completion Rates for Female Students 2007-2011 (Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.) |
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| Dallas ISD Completion Rates for Male Students 2007-2011 (Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.) |
Go to the bottom of that page for a link to a 12 page slide show with all of the above charts an a few additional one.)
The changes recommended by Dallas Achieves that appear to have led to this progress were solid: https://www.dallasisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001475/Centricity/Domain/701/boardreport2008.pdf
Now the work of the Dallas Home Rule Charter District Commission must continue and hopefully eventually help to inspire the same level of improvement. But the Commission is bogged down for the time being. We must get beyond the same inertia that Trustees are now suffering from due to Mike Miles success in keeping current DISD performance and achievement information away from them.
The problem with the Commission is that not enough of them are confident from their studies of what is in front of them regarding home rule.
The problem with DISD Trustees is that they cannot secure 5 votes on the DISD Board to demand current DISD monthly information intentionally denied them by the superintendent.
The next four months will be very difficult for DISD!
