Activists with the group Dallas Justice Now are demanding that Dallas ISD convert Sam Tasby Middle School into a charter school due to poor student performance.
Dallas Justice Now’s website describes itself as “a member-driven project of activists, researchers, and local leaders dedicated” to making the city more just.
The reason for their demand stems from the school’s TEA achievement scores. Over the past six years, Tasby Middle School has averaged a student achievement score of 56, or an “F” grade.
The TEA describes student achievement scores as an “evaluation of performances across all subjects for all students, on both general and alternate assessments.” College, Career, and Military Readiness indicators, as well as graduation rates are factors in the grade a school receives.
According to a letter obtained by The Dallas Express from Dallas Justice Now, approximately 97% of Tasby Middle School’s student body is “non-white, with black and LatinX students” making up the majority of students.
“We all know what an F in student achievement rankings means,” says Ndure Cain, the co-president of Dallas Justice Now, “it means a majority of students can barely read or write let alone put two sentences together.”
“It means students are not being prepared for high school success and college admission, rather they are being prepared at best for poverty-wage jobs and at worst for a life of crime and prison,” Cain adds.
Tasby Middle School is located on Fair Oaks Avenue in Dallas, just around three miles from Highland Park Middle School, which has averaged a student achievement score of 96 or an “A” grade and has a majority-white student body.
“Do they expect us to believe that white kids three miles away in Highland Park are simply smarter and harder working than our kids?” Cain asks, “Or will they admit they have failed to give our kids resources and support to succeed?”
The letter concludes by demanding that Dallas ISD “admit their failures” and allow the school to leave the district and be turned over to charter school operators.
Charter schools are similar to public schools in that both are publicly funded and tuition-free. They are also similar in that they use test scores to determine their school’s success. However, charter schools have added flexibility because they are not tied to a school district. Charter schools do not receive funding from property taxes, but directly from the state.
Instead, charter schools set their curriculum and performance standards through independent agreements, or charters, with state and local governments. In contrast, a public school district dictates the curriculum and performance standards for all the schools within their district.
In return for their added flexibility, charters are designed to be more accountable to parents and the governments that approve their agreements.
Charters have met their fair share of pushback, including from some who believe the schools are not meeting that requirement.
Valerie Strauss reported in The Washington Post that because “the claim that charters schools are public schools is not consistently challenged, some charters are becoming more brazen in misleading prospective parents.”
She continued, “Charters, regardless of their original intent, have become a threat to democratically governed, neighborhood public schools, and questions about their practices, opacity, and lack of accountability are increasing as their numbers grow.”
Indeed, enrollment for charter schools has been skyrocketing nationwide. The number of students enrolled in charter schools has more than doubled, from 1.6 million in 2009 to 3.3 million in 2018, per the most recent data available from the National Center for Education Statistics.
According to a Texas Charter School Association‘s fact sheet, Dallas public charter schools enroll more than 59,000 students, or 15%, of Dallas County’s market share.
The fact sheet claims that three out of the top five rated public schools in Dallas are charters. Further, it claims that more Dallas charter school students go to college than Dallas ISD students at 51% versus 47%.
According to research from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, “in both reading and math, four out of nine, or 44%, of charters … do not differ significantly from the traditional public school option.”
The Dallas Express reached out to Dallas ISD media relations to comment on Dallas Justice Now’s claims but did not receive a response.