Dallas public schools Archives - Midland-Odessa-Dirt

12/19/14 3:19pm

Dallas Public Schools: 10 Questions with a DISD Family

Photo: Cindy Homsher

As much as I love to talk about Dallas public schools and what I’ve learned through talking with administrators, teachers, parents, students and school board members, nothing can replace the insight from a been-there-done-that family entrenched in the district. So I’ve come up with 10 questions (the same 10 I ask every DISD parent when I want to talk about their school or schools), and each month we’ll highlight a family who answered. Our inaugural edition will begin with the Homsher family, who live in Preston Royal. Mom Cindy Homsher and her kids – Natalie, Matthew, Nicholas and Catherine – answered our questions.

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Benjamin Franklin Middle School, Booker T Washington High School, Dallas ISD, Dallas public schools, Dealey Vanguard, Disd, Northlake Estates, Preston Hollow Elementary, Preston Royal

Dallas

12/10/14 10:17am

Dallas Public Schools: My Goodness, the Choices!

by Bethany Erickson

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Saturday morning, the Mister, Tiny and I drove over to Ellis Field house to attend the DISD magnet school fair.

We left kind of stunned. A good stunned, though, because even with our two years of research and question-asking and review seeking, we were still surprised by the sheer volume of choice offered to families who attend Dallas public schools.

In fact, even if your kiddo isn’t even at the point of attending school yet, I recommend you go to next year’s fair, just to start getting the lay of the land and – even more so – to have a tangible way to visualize the myriad of ways your child can learn.

Our original plan had been to just make a beeline for the two schools we were interested in – Dealey and Harry Stone. We did go there, and asked plenty of questions (more on that in a minute), but then we spent another half hour or so milling around. Vanguard schools for STEM and fine arts. International Baccalaureate schools out the wazoo. Law magnets. Engineering magnets. Leadership and communication magnets. You name an interest, and there is a way to address it.

In fact, a teacher at Skyline High wanted me to make sure our readers knew that free transportation is available to all magnet, vanguard and montessori schools. “Make sure they know!” she said. (more…)

Dallas public schools, Dealey, Disd, Harry Stone, magnet schools, Miguel Solis, montessori, vanguard

Dallas

12/02/14 5:07pm

Dallas Public Schools: Required Reading for the Week

by Bethany Erickson

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This weekend, the Mister, Tiny and I will be heading to the DISD Magnet Fair I mentioned last week, to get a bit of the lay of the land. Next week also means dropping by the Dealey open house as well – so keep your eyes peeled for what I’ve gleaned from those two treks next week.

This week I am working on defining some of the things we see talked about – but if you’re new to Texas, public schools or Dallas ISD, you might not know exactly what they are. It’ll be an ongoing feature that I hope will eventually be spurred by reader questions – so if there is something you’ve been wondering about but haven’t wanted to call yourself, email me – I’ll find out!

In the meantime, here are some stories and blog posts that I found interesting about Dallas public schools:

At the Dallas Observer, Jim Schutze points out an interesting statistic – apparently DISD leads the nation in Advanced Placement scores by minority students.
The Home Rule Commission met yesterday, and Eric Celeste has some suggestions for that body over at Learning Curve.
If you have an hour a week to spare, DISD could use some literacy tutors, the Dallas Morning News said.
Although not about Dallas ISD specifically, if you didn’t catch DISD executive director of news and information Jon Dahlander’s poignant piece about his late son, grab the Kleenex and settle in. It’s beautiful.
Dallas ISD’s bond rating was upgraded for the second consecutive year by Fitch, and now stands at AAA. It wasn’t a blink ago that the district was borrowing money, and now it has a steady surplus every year.
And finally, if you haven’t read my piece about our decision to give Dallas public schools a chance, please head over and let me know what you think.

Advanced Placement scores, AP, Bond rating, Dallas ISD, Dallas public schools, Home Rule Commission

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