The question of student outcomes has come to the forefront of the upcoming runoff for the trustee seat in Dallas ISD District 2.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the May 6 election for the seat of Trustee Dustin Marshall — who decided not to run for re-election — did not result in an outright victory. The three-way race ended with education nonprofit executive Sarah Weinberg getting around 37% of the vote, real estate investor Jimmy Tran logging about 40%, and former educator and columnist Kevin Malonson earning 23% of the vote.
Without anyone securing a majority of votes, the race heads to a runoff scheduled for June 10. Early voting started last week and ended Tuesday, and the candidates both weighed in on some of the issues at Dallas ISD they feel they can help deal with if elected.
“My priorities include improving student outcomes, ensuring school safety, attracting and retaining great teachers, engaging with parents and the community and being a strong fiscal steward for our taxpayer [money],” Weinberg said in an emailed statement to The Dallas Express.
“To improve student outcomes, the district must successfully implement the use of high-quality instructional materials so that teachers have access to consistent and rigorous literacy and math curricula and the needed training to be able to ably deliver instruction using it,” Weinberg added.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Dallas ISD’s student achievement outcomes have been struggling in recent years, with only 41% of students scoring at grade level on the STAAR exam and only 81.1% of the graduating Class of 2022 earning a diploma on time, according to the Texas Education Agency’s accountability report for the 2021-2022 school year.
Furthermore, 57 Dallas ISD campuses received a D rating in student achievement, while 29 got an F.
The Dallas Express spoke with Tran about what he thought he could bring to the table to help turn around the struggling school system.
“We need to put extra resourcing behind third grade, reading in particular, bring on reading interventionists. [Reading at grade level in the third grade] is a huge milestone for kids. If we can’t tackle that then their success later on is severely crippled,” Tran said.
He went on to call the district’s current College, Career, and Military Readiness programming “murky” and in need of improvement, arguing that there was “some disconnect between what students are getting in ninth through twelfth grade and a legitimate pathway for them to succeed in life.”
Tran also noted that, unlike his opponent, he currently has children enrolled in Dallas ISD schools.
“We’ve got skin in the game,” he said.
In a subsequent email to The Dallas Express, Tran claimed that more money was being spent on Dallas ISD District 2 than any other area race and that his opponent was the beneficiary of PAC money.
“Ms. Weinberg has raised a total of $438k for this seat and has generally spent 3 times as much as my campaign. She has received contributions from PACs, I have not,” Tran claimed.