How Dallas Schools are Improving

A child’s education is perhaps the most important gift adults can give. Nothing better prepares a child for success later in life more so than a high-quality education. In Dallas, TX an innovative and bold new system is being put in place to help schools become even better.

The system, which will put an end to schools being managed based on grade levels and geography, looks to ensure lower-performing schools will have access to the same amount of attention and resources as higher-performing schools. Top school system managers will be given the task of overseeing this transition as well as plugging in a number of Dallas tutors to help the struggling students through the transition.

The new plan will have several assistant school superintendents in charge of 4-6 “feeder patterns,” which include a high school and the middle and elementary schools that send students to that high school. The schools will have a mix of academic ratings and not be based solely on geography.

The idea behind this new system is to encourage competition, keep some schools from getting less attention and resources and have administrators face more scrutiny and accountability for their schools. Managers of these feeder patterns will have to nurture their lower-performing schools while also keeping the higher-performing ones going full speed ahead. By stressing accountability, both principals and teachers will be empowered to express and try ideas that they believe will work best with their students.

The restructuring idea has been embraced by educators because they feel it will tackle some of the Dallas school system’s biggest problems. Among these are one person being responsible for managing too many others, along with the elementary and middle schools not adequately preparing students for high school. The new system, which administrators admit will take several years to show results, will bring groups together that previously had little reason to care about each other’s fate. For example, by mixing up the geographic grouping in the new system schools from different parts of Dallas will have to stress equality for everyone. Schools from North Dallas such as W.T. White High School will now be grouped together with Pleasant Grove schools like Samuell High School. In doing this students, teachers and administrators have more at stake regarding the success or failure of a school to achieve performance goals.

Under this new system, talent and leadership will be allowed to grow, leading to a more consistent and upgraded learning experience for students. The future of Dallas schools looks very bright.