Teachers at Dallas ISD who were once skeptical about the Texas Education Agency’s reading academies for educators are now seemingly singing its praises.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Dallas ISD has been struggling for years with its student achievement outcomes, including reading.
According to the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) latest accountability report for the district, only 43% of students scored at grade level on their STAAR exams during the 2021-2022 school year. The statewide average that school year was 48%. Additionally, almost 20% of the district’s graduating Class of 2022 did not earn a diploma in four years. The statewide on-time graduation rate was 90% that school year.
“You study your standards. You know what you’re going to teach. I believe in the traditional way,” said district teacher Stacy Bailey-Lard, according to NBC 5 DFW. “Going back to when I started teaching … you learn to read, now the research is saying that’s not so, there’s a process to learning to read.”
The TEA requires educators in grades K-3 to go through summer and in-semester training each year to learn about some of the more recent and effective pedagogical strategies for teaching kids how to read.
“I would say the majority of those at-risk readers showed tremendous growth if it wasn’t just moving up one grade level some of them advanced, but it was making sure we looked for their growth,” said Bailey-Lard, per NBC 5.
TEA’s reading academies were created in 2019 by the Texas Legislature in a bid to improve literacy among Texas students and bolster at-grade-level academic performance.
“All K-3 teachers, including special education teachers and principals, are required to attend the HB 3 Reading Academies. Local Education Agencies … continue to have authority to exempt educators who are not the teacher of record in required grade levels including art, health education, music, physical education, speech communication, and theatre arts, or theatre teachers,” reads the reading academy description on TEA’s website.