A Great Semester

January 2015

The start of a new year is an excellent time to reflect on the progress that Dallas ISD has made.  This school year, working together and supported by our parents and community partners, we reached a number of milestones in our journey to transform the District and provide the best education possible for all of our students.

With the daily bustle and noise, it may be hard to realize the gains we have made together and the real difference teachers and support personnel are making.  And while the sailing has not been smooth and real concerns exist, the positive change is palpable and we are now in a position to raise our sails.

While visiting schools and classrooms in the District, the senior leadership team and I have seen an incredible amount of progress and focus.  School leaders and teachers across our large, urban system are working with a sense of urgency and almost a singular focus on improving the quality of instruction.  Walk into any school and one will see purposeful classroom activities, engaged students, and principals who are instructional leaders.  Stay a little longer and you will see that compassion and a love of children remain bedrock principles among staff.

The collaboration among schools and central office departments have also led to a number of “firsts” in Dallas ISD during the fall semester.  As a result of fundamental changes in our hiring and recruitment processes, we started the school year with the smallest number of classroom teacher vacancies in recent memory.  The launch of the Teacher Excellence Initiative, the new teacher evaluation system, included the first-of-its-kind certification of school leaders and the convening of focus and expert groups to help improve the system.  Another milestone was reached in December when school leaders identified over 1,400 teachers as eligible for the distinguished teacher review process.  These teachers will help the District establish the bar for what distinguished teaching looks like.

While the effort to implement TEI has been extensive, enormous strides have been made in other areas.  Our early childhood initiatives caused a growth in Pre-K enrollment and support for hundreds of teachers through the addition of new Pre-K specialists and coaches.  The expansion of school choice options took a leap forward with the roll-out of an application process, support of eight schools through a program development phase, and the selection of five schools that will begin enrolling students next year.

For the first time in the District, we tied principal compensation to evaluations; implemented a large-scale literacy program with hundreds of community members in 92 elementary schools; deployed “The HUB,” which will greatly enhance our ability to inform stakeholders and staff about key stories, the progress of the District, and challenges we are facing; revamped the Alternative Certification program for teachers; and received an upgraded bond rating to AA+, confirming that the District is in its healthiest financial position ever.

On top of all that, numerous employees and schools were tested by the Ebola crisis in October.  We were the first school district in America to ever have to manage the fear and potential panic that Ebola evokes among staff and parents.  We recognize, too, that as the work plans unfolded, life happened: babies were born, couples were wed, parents succumbed to old age or illness, relatives and love-ones were lost.

In the midst of the everyday, incredible things happened in the District last semester.  Reflecting on the accomplishments we have made in just one semester, one can only imagine the amount of blood, sweat, and tears our employees have poured into the arena of school transformation.  One can only imagine what it really took to get to this point.  We owe our employees our thanks and gratitude.

Of course, we have a long way to go yet.  Our students will continue to need our best work, as our journey continues and we engage in the most important work of our time.  A slight breeze gathers behind us – time to hoist sails.

Mike Miles