Despite making big strides with its lowest-performing campuses, Dallas ISD still has a massive task for the upcoming school year: If four campuses don’t do better, the state will either shut them down or take over the whole district.
“The statute provides no discretion,” wrote Texas education commissioner and former DISD trustee Mike Morath, in a letter sent last week to Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and school board President Dan Micciche.
The four long-struggling schools must perform better on state assessments and shake off the “improvement required” label for the upcoming school year or the state will be required to act. Three DISD schools have been on the state’s failing list for five years — Carr and Titche elementary schools and Edison Middle Learning Center — and one elementary campus has missed marks for four years: J.W. Ray Learning Center.
“If one out of 230 schools, one of those four doesn’t make it, our whole conversation changes,” Hinojosa told trustees during last Friday’s board meeting.
Locally, Madison has long tolerated disastrous reading results, despite spending nearly $20,000 per student.