Encouraging early voting in Dallas - with a message for our students.

 This photo was taken 4:30 PM, 10-20-10, at Clarendon/Westmoreland intersection in Dallas. The sign directs people to Martin Weiss Recreation Center for early voting.

It is never right for a teacher to tell their students for whom they themselves are voting. However, such questions are a priceless opportunity for a teacher to speak of the power of the vote.  This is a time to talk of the absolute necessity that people in positions of authority never try to influence those over whom they have authority regarding such a precious right. It is also a time to speak of the absolute necessity for every adult citizen to vote and be involved in the decisions made in our democracy. 

This afternoon many of my students saw me with the above sign as I worked about two miles from our school to encourage Dallas citizens in voting early.  This work was near the closest early voting location in our area, a location that is not marked from the nearby 6-lane road.

Hopefully these efforts during Dallas early voting will send the right message.  Free choice is priceless! We must educate ourselves to best preserve our ability to choose.  We must vote based on reasoned choices for our democracy to work!

(Note: this effort resulted in a 40% increase in the early votes cast at Weiss Recreation Center nearby that was being pointed to with the sign.)

Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah & question to anticipate: “What were we thinking?”

Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah wrote a powerful article, originally printed in the Washington Post, that was re-printed today in the Dallas Morning News: "Accepted now, unforgivable later."

He asked a critical question for the future as we will look back on what we are now allowing to happen: "What were we thinking?"  We need to be asking such questions now. Much suffering could be avoided!

While Professor Appiah listed four "contenders for future moral condemnation," he left out our nation's high school dropout rate.  The scandalous reality is that in 2010 less than 70% of our U.S. students are finishing high school within 4 years?  This disaster certainly merits being a contender for future moral condemnation. In too many urban school districts the graduation percentage is even less than 50%! 

In 20 years hopefully graduation rates will significantly improve so we can be looking back at current numbers and exclaim: “What were we thinking!”

It is such a “What were we thinking?” question that is at the heart of the most successful dropout prevention efforts. In 2005 the School Archive Project was started at a Dallas ISD middle school. It started with the bolting of a 350-pound vault to the school lobby floor to function as a time capsule. It holds letters parents write to their child about their dreams for their child, and a second letter written by that student to themselves about their own dreams and goals. Both these letters are placed by the student into one self-addressed envelope that will be retrieved at the class 10-year reunion. Students know that at this same reunion they will be invited to speak to the then current 8^th grade students about their recommendations for success. They are warned to be prepared for questions such as “What would you do differently if you were 13 again?”

As Professor Appiah says: “… we'll be better off for anticipating the question.” 

That has been proven in the School Archive Project.

The first high school that began getting most of the School Archive Project students in 2005 had averaged a 34% graduation rate from 2000 through 2007. Then the graduation rate began to go up! By the time the Class of 2010 graduated the graduation rate had risen to over 60% due to this future focus and other improvements!

The Archive Project began to spread in 2009 due to the results being seen, and the negligible cost since such letter writing fits easily within normal lesson plans. Now six larger, 500-pound vaults have been bolted to the lobby floors in 6 more Dallas ISD schools. Such a vault in a place of honor, with hundreds of letters being archived each year in it, and passed many times every day by all students, sends a constant reminder of the need to work and plan for the future. Ten-year class reunion planning changes the student perspective about the passing of time.

The power of focusing on the future, and questions of accountability, will change our culture more than anything money can buy. That is the power of preparing every child to answer, 10 years after middle school, that priceless question:  

“What would you do differently if you were 13 again?”

9th grade bulge is disappearing from Dallas ISD enrollment, and the number of boys compared to girls is more balanced

Beginning with the Dallas ISD enrollment for 2005/2006 the 9th grade enrollment bulge began to go down.

For the decade ending with the 2005/2006 school year the 9th grade enrollment had averaged over 14,700 students. Meanwhile the average 8th grade enrollment had only been 11,025.  This made the "9th grade bulge rate" to be 33.3% more students than were in the average 8th grade class for DISD during these years. This was caused by students being poorly prepared for high school who then repeated the 9th grade in exceptionally large numbers. The bar chart below illustrates this pattern in Dallas ISD, a pattern repeated in most school districts in Texas. For all of Texas, from 1997 to 2008, the average "9th grade bulge rate" was 18%.

http://www.studentmotivation.org/DallasISD.htm

The above bar chart illustrates the 9th grade bubble/bulge which is now less than half as severe as the above graph indicates.  With the Dallas ISD enrollment as of 10-14-10, taken from https://mydata.dallasisd.org/SL/SD/ENROLLMENT/Default.jsp, the "33.3% bulge" of the decade prior to 2005/2006, has been lowered to below 12% with the current 20010/2011 enrollment!  This is a significant reflection of the reasons our dropout rates are going down!  Below is the graph showing this progress by year:


Ninth grade bulge history in Dallas ISD

 In the process of the above documented progress, the number of girls related to the number of boys has also become significantly more balanced combined with the lowering of the dropout rate.

The 9th grade enrollment for Dallas ISD in 2004-2005, as reflected in the TEA data base online, shows that  52.7% of 9th grade enrollment was male.  This was probably mostly due to the higher retention rate for boys. That was 6 years ago. As of 10-14-2010 the current Dallas ISD enrollment indicates that only 51.7% of the 9th grade enrollment is male. This represents a 41% improvement.  The 5.4 percentage point difference between the male and female numbers in 2004/2005 is now lowered 41%, to a 3.2 percentage point difference as of the 10-14-2010 enrollment.

The 12th grade enrollment change is even more significant. In 2004/2005 the 12th grade enrollment was only 45.9% male in Dallas ISD. Since then the male 12th grade enrollment has grown to 48.2% of the senior class enrollment as of 10-14-2010. Thus the 8.2 percentage point spread between male and female senior class enrollment from the years before 2005/2006 has shrunk 61% within the past 5 years to a spread of only 3.6%. This 61% improvement within 5 years, in equalizing the balance between the number of boys and girls, is significant progress! 

The dropout rate progress in Dallas ISD is positively affecting many factors in the lives of our students, and in the life in our city.  The many positive results from lowering the DISD dropout rate will be much more valuable to our city that any other single civic improvement that is possible.

(Since the above post it was discovered that progress in Dallas ISD is now moving it in front of the average schools in the state of Texas relative to the 9th grade bulge. See http://schoolarchiveproject.blogspot.com/2010/11/dallas-isd-progress-fighting-9th-grade.html )

Rosine Smith Sammons Lecture In Media Ethics: Jim Lehrer

Last night at SMU was fascinating!  Jim Lehrer spoke about history in Dallas and many events directly related to media ethics.  All seats in Caruth Auditorium were taken with chairs on the stage for the overflow!  His covering of Dr. Martin Luther King's trip to Dallas in 1968 was exceptionally instructive.

However, just as amazing was to survey online media and blogs this morning and to find only one short tweet about last nights lecture: 'Final words: "I am not in the entertainment business" Jim Lehrer#sammons'

Why is so little online coverage/discussion given to this powerful snapshot of Dallas History? It appears that the sometimes painful exploration of history may have failed while other "entertainment" wins.

Dallas students have no time to be waiting for Superman

Dr. Hinojosa will be staying in Dallas.  That is good.  If he can continue, and maybe even accelerate, the progress of his first five years, he may achieve that status of "Superman." 

Right click on above image to enlarge or print.

Graph is from http://www.studentmotivation.org/DallasISD.htm#graph .

But Dr. Hinojosa knows that the real super heroes are our students.  It is the students who do the needed work to achieve graduation, often with honors while living in poverty with very difficult family situations. DISD must motivate and support them. With an ever increasing transparency as to what is happening within DISD, combined with an active district-wide focus by students on their own futures, DISD will see this progress continue.

Our students have no time to wait for a super hero. Their future is being formed now! Progress must happen now. There can be no "waiting for Superman."

Dallas Mexican American Historical League (DMAHL): 2010 Texas State Fair Exhibit & Presentations

On 9-25-10 an exceptionally positive presentation was given at the DMAHL exhibit in the Nature & Science Museum on the State Fair Grounds. The first four Hispanic members of the DISD school board spoke of the individual years they served on the board during the years since 1969.  It was an exceptionally powerful exchange of ideas and history.  This was the first time these four pioneers had ever all sit down together to discuss this shared history as DISD School Board members. In addition to being a reflection of DISD history, this was a powerful affirmation of growing up Hispanic and pushing for equal rights, a process still evolving.

Below is the schedule for the next few weeks of the Texas State Fair for DMAHL presentations, including today's presentations and the names of the speakers. All presentations are being video-taped for the archives of the Dallas Mexican American Historical League, and hopefully will be available to the public through the www.dmahl.org web site now under construction. These State Fair presentations are open to the public and scheduled on the second floor of the Nature and Science Museum at Fair Park, near the DMAHL exhibit. More exhibit details are at
http://www.natureandscience.org/exhibits/crozier_tech.asp .

Dallas Mexican American Historical League
Speaker Forums - 2010 State Fair

Crozier Tech High: The Mexican American Experience 1940's to 1970's

Sept 24, 2010, Sat. - 1pm DISD Historical Reflections

Former School Board Members

Trini Garza 1969-1970, 1991-1994

Roberto Medrano 1974-1986

Rene Castilla 1986-2005

Jose Plata 1995-2001

Sept 30^th, Thurs - 1pm 1940's – The Greatest Generation – Remembering Crozier Life -

Our men leave to war

1940's Alumni

Philip Revillas

Anita N. Martinez

John Zapata Gonzales

October 3^rd, Sun – 1pm The Tri Ethnic Committee 1971 Desegregation Court Order

Rene Martinez

Trini Garza

Frank Hernandez

Oct 7^th, Thur – 1pm 1950's – The Silent Majority – Tech guidance counselors created the workforce

1950's Alumni

Jerry Maldonado
Robert Miramontes
Pedro Aguirre
Cipriano Munoz
Rev. Isabel Gomez
Rafael Gomez

Oct 9^th, Sat – 1pm Mike Gomez – Pursuing acting “Milagro Beanfield”

Oct 14^th, Thur – 1pm 1960's – The Baby Boomers – The Rebel Wolves/Civil Rights – Vietnam

1970's – The “Me” Generation – Crozier Closes,  Trade vs Technology

1960's & 1970's Alumni

Mary Bocanegra

Gloria Velasquez

Frances Rizo

Tom Lazo

Armando Esquivel

Richard Medrano

Alejandro Oballo

Luis Sepulveda

Johnny Moa

October 16^th

The History of The Bill Harrod Church

Elsa Cadena

Olga Uribe

Benita Villa

October 17^th

My Time with Jack Ruby

Richard “ Chick” Ramirez Tech Alumni

No Las Vegas Gamble

While we are in the middle of the Michael Hinojosa job application for superintendent in Las Vegas, one thing is certain, most students in both Dallas and Las Vegas are not watching. What are students worried about? Their interests go to the millions of issues created by social networks and advertising media that occupy the evenings and weekends of our children: video games, movies, purchases, passing time with friends and family, and occasionally some study. 

Our goal as teachers is to tilt those millions of interests so that school work and study gain in popularity. Without a more realistic vision of their futures by our students, that will never happen.

It is not a gamble to spend more energy and time focusing our students onto their own lives 10 years into the future. Until that future vision is more real, until students can easily and credibly talk about it by the time they are finishing middle school, cities like Dallas and Las Vegas will both continue to have only about half of their students graduating high school within 4 years.

Hopefully somewhere, someday, a superintendent will cut these dropout rates in half within 6 years. It will only be done using some of the methods from the School Archive Project.