12-19-19 Board Meeting: Summary of 2019 DISD Transparency War

Generally, when I am speaking about STAAR tests or other tests that are made in Texas or Dallas, DISD students are doing well.  However, when those tests are nationwide tests the results tend to be disastrous.

Said another way, when it is easy to "teach to the test" DISD does well. When the testing is on more general abilities and it is harder to "teach to the test" Texas does bad, and DISD does even worse!

That pattern was illustrated painfully with this chart produced by the Dallas Morning News and posted in their 11-7-19 editorial titled "So we are better than Mississippi? Not any more."

These are scores from the National Association for Educational Progress (NAEP).  Added to this Dallas Morning News Chart are the two red lines showing when significant cuts to education in Texas were made in 2011, and when a non-educator was placed as Texas Education Commissioner in January of 2016.   While this chart is made for only African American 8th grade Reading scores, this general pattern of decline applies to all students in Texas and in Dallas.  Below are the NAPE scores for the past decade painfully documenting details of the decline in Dallas ISD.  Of these 20 scores covering the past decade in Dallas only one, a fourth grade math score for 2015, shows an improvement that is statistically significant. There are 12 scores, including all 10 of the Reading scores, that are statistically significant declines.

Finally, here is a summary of the 8th grade African American Reading scores for the nation, Texas, and DISD.  DISD is the worst, Texas is better, and the nation is better than Texas.

Texas must begin to look at how they are doing on nationwide tests more closely as our achievement appears to be the worst ever! 

Creating our own testing system in Texas, that makes us feel good when we teach to the test, is worthless in today's world!  This problem is bigger than DISD, but in Dallas ISD students are apparently suffering from it more than anywhere else in Texas.  Is that due to TEI, the Teacher Excellence Initiative which started in 2015 when the decline in NAEP scores in DISD appears to have accelerated?

Go to www.dallasisd.us to see a listing of Board presentations and other significant statements and studies done regarding Dallas ISD.