Kimball, Spruce among record number of Dallas ISD schools to be acceptable, recognized or exemplary

by Patrice J. Holmes of of Dallas Weekly

Several DISD schools have reason to celebrate as the 2008-2009 school year comes to a close. When state accountability ratings are released later this year, DISD is expecting more schools than ever, including more than half of all campuses, to be rated exemplary or recognized by the Texas Education Agency.

An early analysis of the 2009 administration of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Test indicates that as many as 127 DISD schools will be rated either exemplary or recognized, up from 103 this school year.

Among those is Justin F. Kimball High School. Its principal, Danny Stigers, said it was a hard road, but a change had to be made.

“We studied the data and we tried to fix what was broken and that’s not something you can do overnight. That’s something that you have to work on and it could take years.

Mr. Stigers, who has been an educator for 20 years, pointed out that a school can be acceptable overall, but when the numbers are broken down by ethnic and socioeconomic groups the numbers can tell a different story. He said his goal was to look at all of the groups on an individual basis and work with each one to meet the needs of each student.”

“We had to work those student groups to make sure they are all acceptable and then the overall category will take care of itself.”

The number of Dallas students passing the TAKS increased in every subject during 2009. Even better, the number of students scoring at commended levels went up in every subject.

Preliminary calculations also indicate that the number of academically unacceptable schools dropped for the second consecutive year. Based upon TAKS scores, the number of unacceptable campuses will likely be 14, down from 21 in 2008 and 27 in 2007.

“While this has been a challenging school year, the dedicated staff members at our campuses have kept the focus where it needed to be—on academics,” said Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa. “This is very encouraging news and is the result of enormously hard work by staff at every level, but especially teachers and principals at our schools.”

This year’s TAKS results mean that, for the first time, more than half of all Dallas ISD campuses will be rated either exemplary or recognized. Under current calculations, the number of exemplary campuses will likely rise from 26 to 43. The number of recognized campuses will increase from 77 to 84.

In addition, for the first time, six comprehensive high schools are on target to be rated as recognized by the Texas Education Agency, prior to the completion rates inclusion on final accountability ratings. Those high schools are W.H. Adamson, Moises E. Molina, Thomas Jefferson, H. Grady Spruce, Sunset and W.T. White.

After years of unacceptable ratings, Spruce is a success story. This is a campus that was once in danger of closing and after some revamping and new faculty and staff, Spruce has gone from academically unacceptable to recognized. Dr. Lucy Hackemack, Spruce principal said this honor is out of this world.

“The students knew we had grown but they had no idea that it would be that much growth,” Dr. Hackemack said. “I didn’t expect anyone not to work. I worked hard, the teachers worked hard and we were going to be the best school. The image that Spruce had is going to change this year.”

Spruce has been deemed academically unacceptable for the past four years straight, the fifth year usually means school closure from the TEA. But Dr. Hackemack said her staff and students started the year off and ended it right.

“The whole culture changed,” Dr. Hackemack said. “Coming in, they were not used to having mandatory tutoring and Saturday school but I told them that we had to go over and above the call of duty this year in order to be successful.”

At the beginning of this school year, Dallas ISD had 12 schools that had been listed as academically unacceptable for more than one year. Eight of those schools scored high enough to be named academically acceptable during 2009 and two of them, H. Grady Spruce High School and Birdie Alexander Elementary School, are on target to be named recognized campuses.

The number of Dallas students performing at commended levels continued to rise, indicating that more students than ever are scoring well above passing levels and are on track for attending college.

The TAKS results do not include the second administration of the state mathematics test in grades 5 and 8, which can only assist schools with their ratings. The state’s final accountability ratings will not be released until August.

Kimball Associate Principal Sharonda Pruitt said the leadership, which played a large role in the school’s success this year, was solid and phenomenal.

“TAKS scores are crucial because it means that our students are meeting standards are prescribed by the state of Texas,” Ms. Pruitt said. “I cannot say enough about the hard work and dedication and commitment and the continued support from the community was awesome.”

Mr. Stigers said that this result after all of the faculty, staff and most importantly the students, they deserve all the credit.

“This is just one step of many. We are not satisfied with being academically acceptable; the next goal is to be recognized. I have addressed that with the faculty and staff and I want them to come back and work toward that.”