Texas Charter Schools, ISD's, and Dallas ISD compared, using Snapshot data

The most consistent and powerful data base on school districts, including charter school districts, in Texas is the Snapshot data base maintained by the Texas Education Agency at http://tea.texas.gov/perfreport/snapshot/index.html.  It is a data base going back to 1995 that has tracked and reported on 98 data items ever since this date for ever ISD and charter district in Texas.  Here is the most recent report for Charter schools, ISD's and Dallas ISD for the 2013/14 school year.  It is a report with about half of the 98 data items reported on.  Go to the above link for 2014 for the full report.

Questions for DISD School Board Candidates in 2016

I have suggested answers but these are certainly NOT the only answers.

1)    What are the three the most positive accomplishments approved by the DISD Board during the past five years of DISD History?  Why were they the most positive?
First - Early Childhood Education expansion.  That was long overdue and will greatly improve student achievement.

Second - Moving forward with a bond program to improve DISD schools that was also long overdue.  Too many DISD schools are in terrible condition.  However, the specifics of how this bond program was done was embarrassing.  The relative secrecy and lack of documentation surrounding the process of the work done by the Future Facilities Task Force is NOT the way DISD should run such planning. There are not even minutes to any of the meetings or lists of who attended. Even with those issues, the moving toward the discussion of the bond needs was a positive. It simply should have been handled more publicly. Here is a video documenting in questioning by former trustee Elizabeth Jones of Future Facilities Task Force Co-Chair, Isaac Faz, about the documentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Aco49WP28&feature=em-share_video_user 

Three - rehiring Dr. Hinojosa. The current healing process would never have happened as quickly under anyone else. He was the right choice but needs to hear more from the public so that the right decisions can be made.  That business community segment that supported Mike Miles still has great power. Dr. Hinojosa cannot do what needs to be done alone.

2)    What are the three greatest mistakes made by the DISD Board during the past five years and why were they the worst?

First- hiring Mike Miles to be the superintendent with the least education experience of any superintendent in memory.

Second, - allowing Mike Miles to then operate in remarkable secrecy both from the Board and the public with almost no public accountability to create one of the most negative teaching environments in Texas leading to the departure of over 6,500 teachers.  This was the greatest teacher turnover in DISD History.

Third - refusing to have public presentations and accept public questions as a group regarding student achievement and the progress or lack thereof.

3)    The five years from 2006 to 2011 stand out in DISD History, why?

This was the greatest period of improvement in the graduation rate in DISD History which was accompanied by academic improvement and the lowering of the Texas/DISD Student Achievement Gap to the lowest levels in history! In 2011, for the first time in over 3 decades, the size of the graduation class was over 50% the size of the 9th grade class three years earlier! This progress led to the largest DISD graduation class in 32 years with the Class of 2013. See chart below on the Texas/DISD Student Achievement Gap: 

4)    Given this history, what should your goals be as Trustee?

Transparency (see below) and talking about the data revealed constantly so that actions can be designed to respond to the data revealed, and then be held accountable as these changes are implimented.  I would work to encourage parents at every elementary school in Dallas to study the history of Pk-8 schools both inside Dallas ISD and in the nationwide research.  I would encourage parents to decide if they want their child to attend such a Pk-8 school.  Then work to allow schools to transition to Pk-8 and close middle schools but always have some for those students who want to be in a separate middle school.
True centering on data! We cannot ignore that schools that have parents writing their child about their dreams for them, and then students writing about their own plans for the future, from 6th grade on, annually, have higher achievement and higher graduation rates.  The focus on the future works!  It also costs next to nothing compared to other academic solutions!

5)   How could this history have changed if the DISD Trustees, supporting transparency, had designed a monthly report with the 20+ most critical data items on it reporting on events inside DISD that have never been shared with the public in a timely fashion?  Such reports would include consistent measurements of student performance, student turnover and movement, and teacher movement and resignations. They would also include summaries of the most recent statewide testing. (Data in these areas given monthly would have warned Dallas of what was happening within DISD much more quickly during the damage done these past 3 years.)

See above.  This is only a small start for the many changes that would come with transparency.

6)    Would you support such transparency and a Board requirement that a monthly report be designed and mandated by the Board to encourage more public involvement in our schools?  

Absolutely!

7)   When the DISD Board is considering a major change generating public debate, would you support public debate events with each side able to present a team for open public questions in front of an audience at a very well-advertised venue?

Absolutely!

Segregation in Dallas ISD

The current debates regarding the name of John B. Hood Middle School in Dallas ISD provide a priceless time for the students to both explore history and be actively involved in the decision making process.

DISD students need to study this issue more before they make any recommendation to the school board.  A super-majority of 80+% agreement among students should be required before there is any recommendations due to the importance of such a decision. This is an issue that should be a normal topic in History classes every year, and voted on until that level of agreement is secured one way or the other.

Until then do not change any of the names on our schools.  Why are we in a rush?  This is a priceless learning experience.  Based on the debate online, it will be a discussion that is of value to the entire city of Dallas!

Students must demonstrate a good understanding of both when "Jim Crow Laws" were thriving in the south, why they existed, and their relationship to what is called the Great Migration.

Jim Crow Laws required and reinforced segregation throughout the South.  They were born after 1877 when Reconstruction ended after the Civil War. They ultimately helped create part of the conditions that drove the Great Migration from 1910 to 1970.  That is when an estimated 6 million African Americans moved north to both escape such laws and find better economic opportunity. It was two generations after slavery before the ability and motivation for such moves was common enough for the victims of Jim Crow to escape the South.

It was in 1909 that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded. The name of that organization does not appear in the Dallas Morning News Archives until 1913, and does not appear again until 1923.  Then it begins to appear almost annually in the 1930's.  By 1940 there had been a total of  9 mentions of the NAACP in the Dallas Morning News. Within just 5 years that number was up to 22. By 1950 the work of the NAACP was being reported in the Morning News almost monthly. From 1945 to 1950 there had been 55 more mentions of the NAACP!   By 1955 there were several articles each month as work toward integration accelerated.

While few Confederate names existed on school buildings anywhere in the US before 1920, by the 1930's they became much more common.  The first in Dallas was Robert E. Lee Elementary in 1931, then Stonewall Jackson in 1939.  In 1954 Albert Sidney Johnson was named and the next year John B. Hood Jr. High was named.  Do you think these selected names are related to the growth in visibility of the issues reflected in the NAACP being mentioned in news articles and in the push to racial integration?

In Dallas the White school board reflected the White community that overwhelmingly did not want schools to be integrated. The battle for equal rights heated up leading to the 1954 decision declaring "separate but equal" unconstitutional.  While many states had integrated schools by 1971, Dallas did not achieve that status until 1976.  Dallas holds the sad status of being the last major U.S. city to integrate public schools.  Many valid questions remain as to integration that was achieved.

Did the political climate 22 years after the founding of the NAACP, and the increasing mentions of the NAACP in the Dallas Morning News, have nothing to do with the sudden naming by the White Dallas School Board of a new school in Dallas after a Confederate War hero over 65 years after the Civil War?

The chart below reflects the magnitude of the Great Migration happening from 1910 to 1970.

The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North

Jim Crow laws were gradually weakened with Supreme Court decisions.  Finally the Voting Rights Act of 1965 legally ended their power.  But enforcement was slow.  It was not until 1971 the full integration of public schools was becoming normal and arrived in most urban areas.  Sadly, Dallas ISD was not fully integrated until 1976.  The chart below documents the horror of White flight as this process was happening in Dallas ISD. Notice how the numbers of White students leaving jumped in 1975 and 1976 as the final years before integration of public schools were happening in Dallas ISD.  White flight continued for another 32 years after 1976 with gradually decreasing numbers.

Dallas ISD enrollment by racial group, 1970 to 2015

In 1970 DISD was a school system with over 164,000 students, 95,000 of whom were White. DISD has never had a total enrollment that large since, and White Flight led to the current White enrollment of less than 7,500, a disproportionately high percentage of whom are attending the magnet schools, some of the best schools in the nation.

Notice above that the "Great Migration" ended with the legal integration of public schools across the South, most of which happened by 1970, except for Dallas ISD where it happened in 1976.  See the Dallas desegregation timeline as documented in the Dallas Morning News. 

News articles since 2-4-16 with hundreds of comments:

Hundreds of comments have been made over the past week online as the Confederate School Name/Rename debate waged in Dallas.  It followed the two initial articles in the Dallas Morning News, the one about the planned vote in the middle school on the name, then on the results of that vote.  Multiple comments also followed an opinion piece, an editorial supporting the name changes, and many letters to the editor that were published this past Sunday.

Too many of those commenting to the above articles posted the idea that the major reason for the Civil War was not slavery.  That is not true for Texas for a multitude of reasons that are often covered in articles such as this one from the Texas Observer.     Part of that documentation is in the Declaration of Causes written and approved by Texas leaders for entry into the Civil War:

Here is a link to the full Declaration of Causes document for Texas.
Similar statements exist for most states entering the Civil War against the North.  Several of them are linked here.

From the Texas Declaration of Causes 02-02-1861

Dallas ISD must not waste this priceless learning opportunity for DISD students.
Dallas continues to be the center of a very segregated area of the US where progress has been slow. DFW media provides ample evidence of the segregation:

Normal advertisement 2-16-14 in Dallas Morning News

DISD not collecting most basic data to help fight with charters

 

Letter sent 2-12-16

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From: BBetzen@aol.com
To: HINOJOSAM@dallasisd.org, ecowan@dallasisd.org
CC: miguelsolis@dallasisd.org, danmicciche@dallasisd.org, nbingham@dallasisd.org, lblackburn@dallasisd.org, joyceforeman@dallasisd.org, benutall@dallasisd.org, EDWINFLORES@dallasisd.org, LMcGowan@dallasisd.org, MKOPROWSKI@dallasisd.org, OAKELEY@dallasisd.org, tdhobbs@dallasnews.com, jtorres10@tx.rr.com, shaun.rabb@foxtv.com, joyce.foreman@prodigy.net, juankind@yahoo.com, bshipp@wfaa.com, Hflores@lulac.org, Ken.kalthoff@nbcuni.com, cshavez@kera.org, loribrown316@gmail.com, jflores@univision.net, jwhitely@wfaa.com
Sent: 2/12/2016 2:47:12 P.M. Central Standard Time
Subj: How is DISD planning to fight Charters with this data being ignored?

 

Dear Dr. Hinojosa and President Cowan,

This morning I received the following response to an open records request asking for data on student transfers both into DISD coming from charters and out of DISD going to charter schools.  This may be a goldmine of data for use in the battle with charter schools, but apparently such data is not even being collected based on the email below.

How can DISD plan to combat charters if data is not being collected on the students being lost to charter schools and on students returning from charters, and on how often are these round trips for student both leaving DISD and then returning after time spent in charter schools?

Either DISD truly is not collecting this data, which the public will find amazing, or there is an error in the response to this open records request.  What is the correct answer?

Are there any plans to begin collecting this data now that the battle with charters is more public and open?

 

 

Bill Betzen
Dallas ISD Achievement Data
www.dallasisd.us
Dallas, Texas
214-957-9739

 

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From: RSANCHEZ@dallasisd.org
To: Bbetzen@aol.com
CC: LMcGowan@dallasisd.org
Sent: 2/12/2016 9:55:02 A.M. Central Standard Time
Subj: Public Information Request #14944

 

Dear Mr. Betzen:

You have requested demographic information related to Dallas ISD students transferring from and to charter schools. Please note that the District does not collect the information of students, longitudinally, who left the district for a charter school or returned to the District from a charter school. Students going to other public school districts or charter schools are coded the same. Therefore, there is no information responsive to your request.  Please contact Ms. McGowan at lmcgowan@dallasisd.org if additional information is needed.

Rita Sanchez

Office of Legal Services

Dallas Independent School District

3700 Ross Ave., Box #69

Dallas, TX 75204

Direct Line: (972) 925-3291

Legal Main Line: (972) 925-3250

Legal Fax: (972) 925-3251

Public Information Request Fax: (972) 925-3230

rsanchez@dallasisd.org

---

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email message, including all attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential student and/or employee information. Unauthorized use and/or disclosure is prohibited under the federal Family Education Rights & Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. §1232g, 34 CFR Part 99, 19 TAC 247.2, Texas Government Code 552.023, Texas Education Code 21.355, 29 CFR 1630.14(b)(c)). If you are not the intended recipient, you may not use, disclose, copy or disseminate this information. Please call the sender immediately or reply by email and destroy all copies of the original message, including attachments.

 

 

Socio-Economic Diverity, value of and DISD plans - video

The case for socio-economic diversity: http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/10/the-case-for-socio-economic-diversity-in-our-public-schools.html/

See the video on these pages which was followed by Item 6-a in the 2-11-16 briefing: http://www.boarddocs.com/tx/disd/Board.nsf/vpublic?open

Student Exodus from DISD to charter schools: motivation to change!

Dallas ISD leadership has finally acknowledged the loss of students from DISD to charter schools that has been happening for over a decade!  As is quoted in a 1-21-16 Dallas Morning News Article:

Superintendent Michael Hinojosa says Dallas ISD has acted “fat, dumb and happy” for too long as charter school enrollment exploded within the district’s boundaries, taking away millions in state funding.“We kind of fell asleep,” Hinojosa recently told the school board. “We were losing kids without even realizing it.”

This loss is well documented as going on for over a decade in DISD.  Dallas population was growing and DISD enrollment remained flat and even dropped.  The constant annual loss of over 1,000 students between the 5th and 6th grade has gone on for a decade in DISD!  Was anyone watching?

12-year history of Dallas ISD enrollment by grade 2004-2016

The dysfunctional dynamics and damage from the forced middle school move have been documented in research also proving the value of Pk-8 schools.  It is long past time for DISD to pay attention to that research!   Charter schools have been following that research for years.  Of the 61 charter schools now within the DISD boundaries, only 21 are not on campuses allowing for the Pk-8 configuration on one campus:

61 Charter Schools within Dallas ISD Boundaries & PK-8 combinations on one campus.

The reasons for the value of Pk-8 boil down to teacher/student relationships.  The start of each year at Quintanilla Middle School involved after school duty to keep our students away from the elementary school next door where our middle school students would often enter that school to visit their former teachers.  We had to break that bond!  Why were we not using that bond to motivate more achievement?

When a child is in the middle of, or about to start, the puberty transition is about the worst time possible to tear them away from the adults in the schools that they have often known most of their lives to only place them among strangers.  It is any wonder that documented discipline problems increase 400% in 6th grade, and stay that high until 9th grade when they again go down in DISD?  

Dallas ISD must have a team that will both inform parents about the values of, and problems with the transition of Pk-5 schools into being Pk-8 schools, and allow the parents to decide within DISD, without having to leave for a charter school to have that alternative!

If enough parents in a school want this change, will DISD allow more Pk-5 schools to become Pk-8 schools?  

Two factors in West Dallas make this Pk-5 to Pk-8 transition especially timely.

First, the current middle school serving West Dallas is Edison Middle School.  It is located in about the worst location possible with pollution and noise on all sides of the campus with more in the planning stages. A 30-truck-per-hour cement batch plant was approved by the Dallas City Council for construction within 300 ft upwind of Edison.  This will add to a roofing factory on the east and a former lead pollution super-fund site to the west. 

Second, families in the 7 elementary schools that feed into Edison are already avoiding Edison for their children to such an extent that less than 1/3 of the children from those schools actually attend Edison!   Study these  numbers from the Edison Feeder Pattern:

Pinkston/Edison Feeder Pattern West Dallas, loss of over 65% of students!

DISD must allow these seven schools feeding into Edison to study the Pk-8 alternative and use the $100 million already allocated to Pk-8 education improvements in West Dallas to be used for the transition of these 7 schools, but ONLY if the parents at those schools want the change.  This should include the development of a middle school band/sports/elective center near the new Pinkston High School so that in the afternoon students wanting such involvement would travel from the 7 schools to Pinkston for such activities.

With these changes West Dallas may develop some of the best sports teams, and the highest academics!  

DISD teacher opinions of progress are starting to improve, hopefully only starting.

On 2-6-16 the Morning News published a positive article about the staff climate surveys recently made public: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20160206-staff-outlook-is-sunnier-in-dallas-schools-with-some-clouds.ece .

But this is only a start given the massive decline since 2012.  Here is also the link to check climate surveys for each school: http://interactives.dallasnews.com/2016/disd-morale/ .

Here is a November of 2015 article about the effectiveness of teachers by school: http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2015/11/how-effective-are-teachers-at-each-dallas-isd-school-search-this-list.html/ .