Students at five Dallas ISD schools began their second week today after starting the academic year on August 1 — two weeks earlier than most of their peers — as part of the district’s efforts to counteract the negative impacts of the pandemic on learning.
The five public schools employing the “School Day Redesign” calendar include Maple Lawn Elementary School, H. I. Holland Elementary School at Lisbon, Edna Rowe Elementary School, Thomas J. Rusk Middle School, and Boude Storey Middle School.
The redesigned school year is a part of the city’s “Time to Learn” initiative. In its commitment to the Time to Learn effort, Dallas ISD plans to spend up to $100 million in taxpayer money over the next two years on pandemic support, extending the school year, additional summer learning opportunities, and increasing “high-quality instruction.”
The adopted 2022-2023 Dallas ISD budget allots nearly $8.5 million to extend the school year and notes that the goal for doing so is “to mitigate students’ learning loss” by increasing the time students spend in school programs. Not only will students at these schools begin classes a whole two weeks early, but they will also be kept in classes until June 22 — nearly a month longer than the base schedule.
One of these “redesign” schools, the Edna Rowe Elementary school in East Dallas, posted a handout on the school’s website, noting that it is “proud of [its] school day redesign.”
The school explained that its new system “will extend the school year to start at the beginning of August and end in late June for all students, teachers, and staff.”
Principal Aaron Joseph welcomed students back to campus, saying, “Today is our first day of school! My favorite part this morning is seeing students run to the building from out of their cars.”
The children were excited to attend school, Joseph said, and added, “We are excited. We are excited to provide additional time. We are excited to provide enrichment. … And we are excited to make history again!”
The schedule redesign comes as an attempt to address one of the persistent problems plaguing Dallas ISD: poor academic outcomes. After students returned from a year of remote learning, the percentage of 3rd-6th grade DISD students who “mastered grade level” on the STAAR was below the state average for every single test in 2021.
Based on a four-year longitudinal study, Dallas ISD’s class of 2020 had an on-time high school graduation rate of 82.8% — significantly below the statewide average of 90.3%.
Applying that figure to DISD’s 39,000 high school students for the school year 2021-2022, an estimated 6,800 public high school students likely did not receive a high school diploma from Dallas ISD.
