Dallas Home Rule Charter District Commission Progress Forgotten, 1-5-15

The repeated refrain during the 1-5-15 Commission meeting by too many commissioners that they did "not have enough information" about changing DISD into Dallas Home Rule Charter District to make a decision.  That is very troubling. 

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!



Dallas ISD Completion Rates compared with Texas 2007-2011
(Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.)

What used to be a 13.4 percentage point difference between DISD and Texas in 2007  shrank to only a 4.4 percentage point difference in 2011. 

Below are more specific reports for the different population groups who make up DISD.


Dallas ISD Completion Rates for African-American Students 2007-2011
(Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.)

Dallas ISD Completion Rates for Hispanic Students 2007-2011
(Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.)

Mention must be made of the wonderful progress for our Limited English Proficiency students in Dallas ISD, reflected in the chart below.  The progress was so positive that DISD by 2011 was almost 5 percentage points better than the state of Texas!  DISD had much to celebrate in 2011!

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.)

Dallas ISD Completion Rates for Female Students 2007-2011
(Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.)

 

Dallas ISD Completion Rates for Male Students 2007-2011
(Right-click on above image and select "open link" to enlarge and/or print.)

Dallas had much to celebrate in 2011 with these reports, but the progress has now slowed down and probably stopped.  We must restore this level of improvement, of transparency!  (Copies of the above charts and more are still available online as on 3-15-14 at http://www.dallasisd.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=769&ViewID=047E6BE3-6D87-4130-8424-D8E4E9ED6C2A&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=14006&PageID=2704
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!

Changes in Texas State funding of DFW area school districts

On 12-26-14 the Dallas Morning News published an article titled: "Texas Legislature unlikely to boost school funds in upcoming session."   That article included the per-pupil funding levels for many of the school districts surrounding the DFW area.   That data, in the first three columns below, was taken and several calculations done that lead to some critical questions:

 

The last column in the above chart shows the changes in per-pupil allocation from the state of Texas for each district listed.  Why did these changes happen?   More specifically, why did the average DFW district listed come out with $32 less per student in state funding that the rest of Texas during these years?  Why did Dallas ISD, with such high levels of poverty, come out with $334 less in funding per student?

Here is a 2013 document that should answer this question: http://www.tea.texas.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=2147511834
It not simple.   I am working to understand it due to these unusual changes in funding that happened in the DFW area.

DISD New Year’s Wish for 2015: Transparency

May Dallas ISD become increasingly transparent!

As is well documented during years of recorded DISD Board Meetings, the "Superintendent’s Reports " provided by Mike Miles contain little, if any, hard statistical data about what is happening to DISD students and the staff who serve them.  Due to that ongoing lack of data we must ask Trustees to have additional monthly evening meetings in the same auditorium for Dallas to receive and ask questions about the monthly changes in DISD student achievement.  

This meeting would be for residents who want to know exactly how DISD students are doing.  What is improving their achievement? What is making that achievement suffer?  How evenly distributed is that achievement among all population groups within DISD?   That data must be exposed.  Some of it is at www.dallasisd.us, but that is always old data.  We must know what is happening to our students as soon as the data is available.

The first thing to happen at this meeting would be a presentation by either DISD Administration or by the Trustees about the most recent student performance and staff turnover.  Mr. Miles could deliver it himself if he chose to begin openly sharing all data requested about student achievement and staff turnover.

The second part of the meeting would be a question and answer session with one minute questions allowed, answers given by DISD staff, and a one minute second question/clarification allowed by the original person with the question if their inquiry was not addressed. 

Time would have to be strictly followed with microphones turned off after each minute.   A dialogue would have to be encouraged within these boundaries in respect for the large number of the public who may have questions.  

Such question and answer sessions have disappeared from DISD.  That is part of the reason for the current achievement crisis being faced our Dallas schools.

Transparency must dominate 2015!  Residents must demand it!  Then actions can be taken based on the most accurate and well understood data possible.

Teacher evaluation in Dallas ISD going from bad to worse

“Teacher evaluation: going from bad to worse?” is a very thought provoking article in today’s Washington Post that describes what is happening in Dallas ISD.   It quotes ample research to make the case against using student tests in teacher evaluation.   See this article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/01/teacher-evaluation-going-from-bad-to-worse/ .

The basic message from the article is: “Most boards and superintendents understood that collegiality, not competition, is what is needed for schools to improve.”

Dallas ISD cannot continue to ignore the wealth of research related to teacher evaluation and improving student achievement.  Why have public debates of this research been avoided by current Dallas ISD leadership?

To build up justification for the TEI in Dallas ISD the DISD administration quoted the millions of dollars of research done by the Gates Foundation in the use of testing in the evaluation of teachers (http://www.dallasisd.org/Page/23362).  Then, DISD ignored the same Gates Foundation when that foundation recommended a delay in using tests for teacher evaluations!  See “Gates Foundation urges delay in using tests for teacher evaluation” at http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/gates-foundation-urges-delay-in-using-tests-for-teacher-evaluation/2014/06/10/d037c7fa-f0e1-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html .

The parents must demand that Dallas ISD pay attention to the research studies that are linked to these and many other articles.  The amount of classroom time being stolen for teacher evaluation purposes is destroying student motivation.  The joy of learning must be restored!   Teacher evaluation should not demand this much of an investment from a school district, and from students!

Dallas ISD Climate Survey, November 2014, a worsening crisis!

Today’s Dallas Morning News editorial at http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20141226-editorial-worthy-signs-of-progress-in-dallas-isd.ece  is a mathematical embarrassment for the Dallas Morning News and the city of Dallas.  The DISD online publication, The Hub, like the Dallas Morning News, claims the most recent climate survey is a sign of progress.  See https://thehub.dallasisd.org/2014/12/17/more-employees-believe-their-campus-dallas-isd-headed-in-right-direction/ . 

To claim that this climate survey is a sign of progress can only be done if the record numbers of DISD teachers who are resigning in growing numbers, constantly breaking annual turnover records, are ignored.  Teachers are not even waiting for the end of the year, or winter break, to leave!  They are now leaving during this school year at a rate of about 11 teachers separating each school day! 

DISD lost over 2,241 teachers in the year leading up to the 11-1-14 to 11-16-14 survey. It can safely be presumed that the 2,241+ teachers who left the year before this survey probably represented some of the most negative comments on last year’s climate survey. With over 2,241 new teachers to replace them, why was the increase in positive responses less than 300, less than 1/7^th of the number of new teachers?

Would you not expect more positive responses from new hires if there were no negative factors in the district environment?  Did the 2,241 new teachers turn NEGATIVE that fast in their opinion of DISD?   Are more tenured teachers who were positive in the survey last year now turning negative to make up for last year’s negative responses among the 2,241+ teachers who left?  

Somewhere there are over 1,900 current DISD teachers who were not negative last year, or are new to DISD and already negative before their first year is up.

This climate survey is NOT a positive reflection of improvements in DISD when such massive teacher turnover is still happening.  When positive responses to a climate survey are only increasing at rate that is a tiny fraction, about one seventh, of the recorded teacher turnover, DISD under Mike Miles remains an evolving disaster!

See page 17 on the DISD Data Packet for 2014/15 Planning, online at https://mydata.dallasisd.org/docs/CILT2015/DP1000.pdf to see the 28.5% turnover rate last year.   See turnover history and current teacher turnover numbers in the 30% range at http://schoolarchiveproject.blogspot.com/2014/10/tenured-teachers-leaving-dallas-isd-8.html .

"Educating all students for success" - the mission of DISD?

Today The Hub republished an article from last month.  It's about the financial improvement of DISD.  Below is the chart they included.  My comments are inserted on the chart:

A tiny fraction of the Fund increase could have eliminated the need for any overcrowded classrooms in DISD whatsoever!  Below is the history of the DISD Fund Balance since 1993:


This is a 19 year history of the DISD Fund Balance

Notice how for at least 19 years the fund balance was never above $120 million.  Now we are allowing classrooms to remain overcrowded so that DISD can have a fund balance that is over $340 million.   Why?  Has the mission of DISD changed?

Parents, students & teachers speak out 12-18-14 to DISD Trustees

The 12-19-14 editorial in the Dallas Morning News about not letting the Home Rule Charter District debate die was continuing the distraction from the current crisis in DISD that it appears this "home rule" idea was designed to achieve!   It is trying to avoid talking about the many issues inside DISD that parents, students, and teachers are crying out to the school board about.  These issues need attention!  The crisis is growing.

The 12-18-14 Dallas ISD Monthly Board Meeting was a powerful reflection of parents, students, and teachers working to restore integrity inside our school system.  THE MORNING NEWS VIRTUALLY IGNORED THEIR TESTIMONY!  The video of the meeting where this progress in community engagement is visible can be seen at http://www.dallasisd.org/Page/663     

Go down that page to the board meeting for Thursday, December 18, 2014. 

Click on the “View Video” link for that meeting and go to the 56 minute mark on the tape where the public testimony starts. What follows is a powerful affirmation of the power of public involvement!   During most of these 20+ speakers there were an additional 70 people standing in support of each speaker.

The first speaker, Amy Lee, is a parent who gives a very good summary of the issues addressed by most speakers in one way or another.  Every speaker made additions.

A powerful series of first person testimonies followed, by parents, students, and teachers about the evils of TEI (the teacher evaluation system) and the resulting testing fixation in DISD.  (Again, home rule is a distraction from these issues we need to address that have nothing to do with home rule!)

At 1 hour 21 minutes into the tape possibly the most powerful and terrifying testimony given was started by Elizabeth Akin, a History teacher for the past decade at Greiner Middle School.  She speaks of students being tremendously stressed by testing.  

As she spoke I asked myself: WILL IT TAKE A CHILD COMMITTING SUICIDE before DISD TRUSTEES OR THE MORNING NEWS realize the dangers of this testing fixation!

The next testimony immediately following this powerful presentation by a teacher was a junior at Erma Rangel. WOW!  She was an exceptionally perceptive and articulate student who received the loudest applause and affirmation of the evening!

Similar powerful witness from other parents and students on the crisis in DISD continued for another half hour.  Many of the parents were professionals.   Audrey Pinkerton, at 1 hour 33 minutes into the tape, an experienced ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE professional, spoke of how Mike Miles is not following good change management practices! She pointed out that change in high performance agencies is only achieved with committed employees, a quality reflected in low turnover!  (I am requesting a transcript of her presentation to post.)

Will Dallas allow the DISD Board, OR THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, to ignore testimony like this about our students being abused, stressed, and endangered for reasons NOT NECESSARY for learning?  

This process of active public involvement is how the broken DISD system will be healed.  Yes, the Home Rule Charter District Commission process has been a factor in helping this dialogue to begin, but we do not need a Charter to do this!  We must return to the century old basics of teacher/student relationships as the foundation of education.