While Dallas ISD continues its legal effort to keep the latest state accountability reports from being released, The Dallas Express is putting a spotlight on some of the campuses struggling to provide their students with a quality education.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Dallas ISD joined dozens of other school districts in a lawsuit to prevent Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability reports from being released under a new scoring system that looks to motivate school systems to constantly improve.
Last month, Dallas ISD trustee Maxie Johnson was named The Dallas Express’ Bad Apple of the Quarter for the poor student achievement scores clocked in his education district during the 2021-2022 school year. Some 8,160 students attended underperforming schools in Johnson’s district that school year. Such campuses received D’s and F’s from the TEA.
One of the worst-performing campuses in Johnson’s district was John Neely Bryan Elementary, which scored a 56 out of 100 in the student achievement metric.
Elementary and middle schools are graded according to student performance on the STAAR exam. In contrast, high school scores consider additional factors like graduation rate and college, career, and military readiness.
At John Neely Bryan Elementary, only 25% of students scored at grade level that school year despite the hard work of the campus’ hardworking teachers and staff. Looking at specific subjects, some 32% of students scored at grade level on the reading exam, 18% scored at grade level in math, and 22% scored at grade level in science.
J.N. Ervin Elementary was another low-performing campus in Johnson’s district. It logged similar metrics as John Neely Bryan Elementary.
Students at J.N. Ervin did a little better in math, with 23% scoring at grade level. However, the campus clocked a lower share of students scoring at grade level in science. Only 11% hit the mark.
Districtwide, Dallas ISD has been producing lackluster student achievement outcomes. Only 41% of students scored at grade level on their STAAR exams that school year and almost 20% of students in the district’s graduating Class of 2022 failed to earn a diploma in four years.