While the above chart is generally consistent with progress in DISD up to 2013, the measurements since 2013 are impossible to justify.
In 2013 DISD had the highest DISD student achievement in recent history as measured by the smallest DISD/Texas student achievement gap in history. The DISD/Texas achievement gap is the Dallas ISD statewide test passing rate subtracted from the Texas passing rate. The 2013 achievement followed 7 years of progress.
In 2013 Dallas ISD had a student poverty rate of 89% while all of Texas had a student poverty rate of 60%. In spite of this 29% "poverty gap," the percentage of DISD students passing all statewide tests taken fell within 8 percentage points of all of Texas, the smallest Texas/DISD student achievement gap in history! This was wonderful progress to celebrate as this gap had been 14 percentage points in 2007, and 20 percentage points in 2000!
Sadly, due to dramatic changes in DISD since 2012, and resulting record setting teacher turnover that continues now in 2015, the DISD/Texas student achievement gap exploded in 2014 and again in 2015. By 2015 the DISD/Texas student achievement gap had expanded again to 13%, loosing over 7 years of progress in just 2 years!
Here is a decade of history for the DISD/Texas student achievement gap:
Dallas ISD must return to eliminating this achievement gap!
Multiple concerns have been raised about the accuracy of the ERG measurements including this series of articles in the Dallas Morning News:
Fact check: Was the DISD miracle real? on 6-28-15
Is this new evidence of a “Dallas miracle” at Dallas ISD?
on 9-1-15
Simple auditable data is what Dallas should focus on in tracking what is happening in our schools.
This chart contains the data used to create the above DISD/Texas Student Achievement Gap chart:
