Dallas ISD Has 35 Schools Rated Worst in the State

Yeah right, all of these are hood and or Latino schools. Which means that there is little to no parental involvement, language barriers, and the students are really concerned with sports and entertainment rather than education. Parents have to step it up just as much as school staff. How much can we change the school system when people are not doing what it takes to help educate their own children. Most people, not all think, of school today as a free daycare system. Think about it, every break (spring and summer) parents are dying because they cant wait until school starts back so they can get rid of their kids. Just check the comments on Facebook  Every stakeholder in the community has to work together to make education work. My 5 year old son can read, not because the school taught him but because my wife and I started teaching him when he was 3. Maybe we should be more concerned with helping to educated our kids than making sure they have the latest Jordan's or cell phones.

They really have to redo their education system if they want to improve on it.

Exul Lux, you are deserving of our highest accolades. When Sandy Kress decided being a hack politician and two bit attorney were not enough glory and decided to pass himself off as an expert in educational testing, he did immeasurable damage to our educational system.

Added to that is the queen of cheating, Michelle Rhee, and her bogus Stand for the Children that is just a pipeline to feed more posers here in Dallas.

Rhee's actual teaching record has been exposed as well as the massive cheating that was occurring in DC.

Back to you, the humble teacher doing God's work, well, Kress and Rhee don't care about children who don't fit their linear model of learn just enough to bring them glory -- then fail later on down the line because the kids have not been educated. Kress's own kids are in private school with the excuse they one of them likes Greek and must stay at the school to have a class in Greek.

Rhee, Kress, Stand for the Children, Wendy Kopp, Mike Miles are all living large off the backs of poor childen and taxpayers. History will expose them for the sociopaths they are, but it will take a bit longer for us to come out of the Dark Ages of this idea of replacing educators with data technicians. Long term, the data technicians don't give students the skills they need for college or the workforce. It's all short term increase in test scores that are not valid measures of content.

In the meantime, forget the list of bad schools. Your school is doing an exemplary job.

First, I want to point out that a cursory glance at the list makes it appear as though most DISD high schools are on it, including Woodrow. Interpret that as you will. 

Secondly, and more importantly, I want to point out that the school at which I teach is represented, and that in this case the data used to condemn us to this status is radically flawed, and does not begin to represent the quality of work that takes place by both teachers and students, not to mention administration.

I'll just come out with it- I teach at Emmett Conrad High School. We have a large population of refugees from Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Africa, Iraq, and other countries. I don't know the exact numbers, especially since many of the kids have huge errors on their files (such as kids being listed as Native American when they are from Nepal, which shares language similarities and geographical proximity to India?? Only possible connection I can imagine, Indian/Indian. Who enters these kids into the system?) In any case, it is significant. These students are forced to take the standardized tests within a very short time once they have arrived in this country. They are supposedly allowed bilingual dictionaries during the tests, but many speak languages for which we have almost no such tools, or for which the tools are inadequate (photocopied attempts obtained through refugee services for the more obscure languages, which is almost all of those we need.) I have attempted to obtain dictionaries and have seen maybe a few slim Arabic-English editions, if that.

Our African students are actually classified as African-American, and tested accordingly.

Unlike Spanish, the first languages of these students uses totally different characters/alphabet from English. 

I have tried to translate at least my basic vocabulary, using many online resources, and have had kids (usually the Burmese) look shocked and amazed "who wrote this?" The Nepali kids laugh because there's always something wrong with the translations I have found online, but kindly point out that I should just use Hindi, which I have also displayed, because it looks the same even though it is pronounced differently.

The refugee kids generally work very hard, and humble me with their transition to American culture and the speed with which they learn a language so foreign to their own. In attending some of their cultural events on campus, I have learned that some don't even know where Central Expressway is located, even though they live and attend school very close to the Park Lane exit. They have come, via charities and the State Department, directly from refugee camps to low income apartment complexes (which are always in threat of being razed to create another "upscale" area of Dallas.)

Our school does what we can for these kids, even though district programs for English learners are geared towards those who speak Spanish. The honor rolls are overflowing with their names. 

The American-born, or even those kids born in Latin America but raised here, have a wonderful and rare experience to learn, on such a truly international campus. We are all so busy jumping through the official hoops that no one really has time, nor is there the flexibility in any but a few classes, to take enough advantage of this unusual opportunity. So the kids tend to stay with those they know, and homogenize as much as possible.

In spite of all the obstacles, Conrad possessed so much that a quality school should exemplify. Sadly, in our case, after being crammed through the regulation bubble-holes of standardized testing, that which emerges on the other side is just the equivalent of too many colors of Play-Doh being pressed through a pasta maker - a grayish mess that looks like failure. In my opinion, the problem is, once again, with the ill-suited assessment instrument.

Wasn't the former principal of A Maceo--New Tech promoted by Mike Miles to Executive Director because of the "excellent" work he had done as a principal?  I didn't realize "excellent" work meant getting his school in the academically unacceptable category. 

Your information is incorrect.  The scores for this year are the same as 2010-2011 because the 2012 test did not count.  Also TPM was not a factor because it was discountinued.  I really like this blog, but mkae sure the info. is factual.  Those schools on the list did not meet the minimum standards in 2011, but while the 2012 scores did improve they did not count...therefore the schools must remain on the list for 2 years.  unfortunate, but true....

Put the parents of the 35 schools on a pay for performance plan. Only those families with a child who failed any one of the 2013 tests would qualify (of course, don't announce any information about implementing the plan until AFTER the 2013 tests are completed). Students transferring in for the 2014 year would NOT be eligible. Qualifying students must be present on the first day of school for the 2013-14 year and reward is forfeited upon transferring to any other school. Upon the release of the 2014 STAAR results, parents receive $3,000 for each child in the family that passes ALL the tests. Total award forfeited if even one child in the family fails even one test. At the beginning of next year, each participating family sees their total pending payout on each grade card. That balance may DECLINE through the year by predetermined amounts for demonstrations of lack of parental support: tardiness, missed conferences, office referrals, missed homework, every D/F, failure to attend at least half of the PTO/PTA, rude/obnoxious behavior with school personnel, etc. 1st suspension results in $1000 reduction that can be replaced with a hefty school community service stint AFTER school (custodial work?). 2nd suspension or expulsion results in forfeiture of the award for ALL students in the family. Sadly, I don't believe that the total payout would be very costly for the district...NOTE: I can find no references for a plan like this for parents.

Notice the amount of "school choice charters" on the list missing AYP across the state. Link: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/ayp/2012/sip_cam.pdf

Ahhh, frack. Who cares? They just hired two new guys with a combined total salary of $384,000--and one had to repay his last district when he made the mistake of making bad credit card purchases. Sound familiar, folks? They change places, but the same mentality exists up there on Ross Avenue. If you are not angry, you are not paying attention.

I like to use the analogy: “Teaching in DISD is like trying to dig a tunnel with a spoon.” The easiest and faster way to explain failure is blaming the teachers. Why? Because it is the only thing administrators can control. We all know the problem, but we don’t do anything about it. Year after year the real issues are ignored and shovel down the carpet.

Teachers are over worked, there are not enough books or incomplete sets, no consumables, less money for copies, no technology upgrades, students show up unprepared or unmotivated, parent phone numbers that are blocked or disconnected, very little or no support from administrators, and the list goes on and on.

Administrators don’t give teachers enough credit. Everyday they perform miracles with what they have and still get disrespected time and time again. Shameful situation… 

DMN article states that " DISD officials said they hadn’t had a chance to analyze the list." Are we supposed to believe this was a surprise to them?

No worries! DISD has a plan that will make our achievement rates soar: bludgeon teachers to sussess! Nothing spells success like frightened, angry and hunkered down teachers!

Unfortunately, I predict that the district will spin this news to say that these failures are all the fault of the teachers. They will use this as justification for all of the nonsense they are doing in their war against good teachers.   The measures they are taking will NOT get rid of the bad teachers; the good ones will get fed up and leave on their own accord.  The bad teachers are protected by someone (a principal, ED, trustee, someone else in power) and the new system being implemented will not change that, and so they will remain.  Nothing Miles is doing will fix this problem.

With the implementation of STAAR next year I predict the number of AU schools will at least double.

Although this is not surprising with the top down micro-mgmt we've endured for several years and  continues at warp speed, I refuse to let this report spoil my day. The sun is shining brighter for the King is back in the building! Hope springs!