Staff News

Dallas ISD is seeing the impact of COVID-19 in student performance and is working on plans to mitigate the learning loss, possibly with more  TIME to LEARN.

Students were assessed at the beginning of the school year through MAP, a universal screener providing national, norm-referenced and STAAR-aligned information. MAP monitors growth over time; aligns with the TEKS; provides instructional and intervention guidance and resources; complements exams like common assessment, ACP, and STAAR; includes STAAR projections, and allows teachers to set individual student growth targets.

The results of MAP showed the impact  the pandemic has had on Dallas ISD students. There was some learning loss at the elementary school level while students in the secondary levels fared slightly better. In all, 30 percent of students showed a loss in learning in reading.

In math, the impact is more pronounced—50 percent of students have a loss in learning—when compared to pre-pandemic results across grade levels.

The district is seeing continued, and large, equity gaps by race.

The district’s mitigation plan involves improving attendance, individualized supports for students who need it, and other strategies, which may included an extended school year, starting in 2021-2022.

Focus groups will continued to meet through November and December to review strategies and inform a plan that will be presented to the Board of Trustees in January. Town hall meetings and parent focus groups to gather input will be conducted during December.

Teacher input is key to the planning process. Teachers are being asked to participate by providing their opinions about the options under consideration by completing the survey. The survey closes at midnight, Thursday, Nov. 12.

Central staff who visit campuses as part of their work duties can now visit more than one campus per day. Staff must follow safety guidelines at each campus and make sure that that they sign in and out at each campus to follow district procedures and in case the information is needed for contact tracing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now defining “close contact” being within six feet of an infected individual for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. However, this does not change Dallas ISD procedures. The district has always used cumulative exposure to infected persons as part of its contact tracing procedures.

For more details on the CDC close contact clarification click here.

Veterans Day is Wednesday, Nov. 11, a day set aside by the nation to recognize those who serve the country in defense of freedom. In Dallas ISD, military veterans play essential roles in district operations. They serve in virtually every capacity, from the maintenance teams and financial management staff to school administrators, teachers and a wide variety of central office and campus positions. Applying skills and discipline learned as service men and women, veterans make a positive difference in district operations. On this Veterans Day, be sure to show your appreciation to a veteran for their service to the country and Dallas ISD.

Dallas ISD employees who refer external candidates to the Transportation Department for full time driver positions could receive a $200 bonus through the Transportation Referral Incentive Supplemental earning. Eligibility for the incentive requires the candidate to notify Human Capital Management at the time of hire of any referral via official referral form and prior to their official start date as part of their on-boarding process. The newly hired driver must complete 45 drive days based on the 185-work day calendar for the driver’s referrer to qualify for the payment.

During the district’s Men’s Health Month, the Benefit’s Department will be sharing a series of helpful articles by local health expert Dimitrius Glenn. The articles address different aspects of men’s health to encourage male educators to maintain their physical health, fitness development and emotional outlook.

According to sources like Healthline.com, the top five male health issues are heart health, respiratory disease, alcohol abuse, depression/suicide, and unintentional injuries and accidents. Several of these conditions are a direct result of lack of physical fitness or sedentary lifestyles, and poor eating habits. Some of these conditions can be easily remedied by committing to make simple changes.

For those who were already lacking exercise and making poor nutrition choices, the current COVID-19 has probably made things worse and the push to make everything virtual has curtailed exercise opportunities. According to an article published by Pennsylvania State University about teachers’ health and stress, 46% of teachers report high daily stress, which compromises their health, sleep, quality of life and teaching performance. This affects males more because they have the tendency to not communicate as well how they are feeling or things that are bothering them.

What can you do?

Regaining fitness, improving food choices, and changing your outlook can be done with some simple changes. The important thing is to get started and keep going to improve your health outlook.

• Take a stroll around the neighborhood or in a park just to free your mind
• Make sure you include more fruits and vegetables in your diet and fewer sugary drinks and processed foods
• Journal or write down your thoughts
• Communicate openly with friends and family
• Seek professional help if you feel out of control or helpless

Soon, it will be easier to access Information Technology’s Support Hub when a dedicated shortcut icon is added to district devices. Within Support Hub, staff will have the ability to order new equipment and services, as well as create an incident for IT support.  A virtual agent will also be available to address common issues and along with providing access to knowledge-base articles.  Staff can also get the most up-to-date information on planned maintenance or unplanned service outages.  To access Support Hub, click here and enter your EAD credentials.

Effective Nov. 1 Non-Exempt and Exempt Attendance Report forms and Payroll Correction and Supplemental Correction forms will be available electronically through Laserfiche, replacing the paper forms.

Timekeepers will continue to make entries to the employees’ timecards for absences and adjustments prior to the payroll bulletin deadlines; however, all payroll correction forms must be completed and approved using the Laserfiche submission process. Departments and campuses have the option to continue using a paper form for non-exempt and exempt attendance reports or start using the electronic form, but all employees must use the same type of form. If a department or school chooses to use the electronic non-exempt or exempt attendance report forms, all employees must then use the Laserfiche submission process for consistency.

The electronic forms can be found on the Payroll Services website under the Forms option starting Nov. 1. You will need to sign in using your EAD username and password to gain access to the form, which will be routed automatically to the designated supervisor for approval.

Given the trials 2020 has presented for students and the learning process, Dallas ISD is taking steps now to minimize what is expected to be a more severe loss of learning than is typically seen during the summer.

Ideas under consideration to mitigate the loss of learning include possibly extending the school year and/or rethinking the school day at certain campuses to benefit both students and teachers.

• For students, there would be increased opportunities for lifelong learning, enrichment, acceleration, recovery, and new experiences
• For teachers, there would be more time for teamwork, innovation, mentorship, and exploration

Teachers are key to the success of any proposal developed by the district, which is why their voice is critical to this process. Teachers are asked to complete this survey by Thursday, Nov. 12, to give feedback about each of the options under consideration, including the potential for an extended school year in Dallas ISD.

This video details some of the work that the district is doing to gather input from a variety of stakeholders.

The Board of Trustees will take into consideration the administration’s proposal in January. The program would be implemented for the 2021-2022 school year.

To protect students and staff, Dallas ISD is implementing a phased-in COVID-19 rapid testing program provided by TEA and the Texas Division of Emergency Management. The pilot is being offered to districts to conduct rapid tests of employees and students—with parents’ written permission—to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 on campuses.

Initial implementation will involve high school coaches and trainers receiving training to administer the tests to student-athletes. In the next phase of the rollout, nurses will oversee testing at campuses followed by availability on a voluntary basis to all district staff.

The district is receiving personal protective equipment (PPE) to safely administer the rapid tests, which produce reliable results within 15 minutes. The testing is seen as another way to help protect the health and safety of our students and staff as we continue to manage in-person classes and extracurricular activities during the pandemic.

As an 8-year-old, John Paul Gonzalez often felt dumb, and he would pray for help to be able to read. He used to place a book under his pillow to give God a hint that he needed help to make sense of the letters in the book.

His prayers were answered the next year when his new third-grade teacher told his mother that she thought he might be dyslexic. After being evaluated and receiving additional support, Gonzalez figured out the code and was able to read.

“If I had not received the services, I could almost guarantee you I would have dropped out of school,” he said. “It’s that life changing.”

Today, as a dyslexia evaluator and licensed therapist Gonzalez helps Dallas ISD students figure out the code so they, too, can read at grade level and succeed in school. With 147 therapists and 27 screeners, Dallas ISD has one of the largest dyslexia programs in the country, and this has had a positive impact on students who on average get diagnosed two years earlier than they did three years ago. Dallas ISD provides dyslexia services to more than 3,600 students, and National Dyslexia Awareness Month, celebrated in October, highlights the difference programs like these makes in their lives.

Focusing on dyslexia during the month is important because some studies indicate that as much as 15 to 20 percent of the population could be dyslexic but go undiagnosed.

“Sometimes, we’ll have kids of average to above average intelligence with really high IQs that learn to cope until they reach the tipping point at a later age,” said Gonzalez, who became a license therapist in 2006. “They memorize, use cognitive skills to achieve, but as the academic rigor reaches a point where that no longer works.”

The earlier the diagnoses takes place, the sooner students can receive the help they need to succeed, whether it’s therapy and 504 accommodations so they can thrive in a general education classroom or receive other special education services to help them make significant strides in their education.

“We know that research says that early identification and early remediation are key,” Gonzalez said. “At a young age, I was able to overcome. When we are faced with problems in something as important as reading and you learn to overcome them, it makes all the difference in the world. I still have a difficult time distinguishing between i and e sounds. Even today, as an adult, I have to use the code, to hear the initial sound and the key word.”

Parents often see their children struggle at home, but don’t always identify the struggles as dyslexia. That is why teachers receive special training to more easily identify signs of dyslexia and make a referral.

After the referral, students undergo a cognitive test to determine their dominant language. Once they screened has the information, they use the data and numbers to determine what level of support is needed. Remediation is done in Spanish or English, depending on the child’s dominant language. If the student speaks Spanish, the therapy takes place in that language and then is transferred to English. The Esperanza Program teaches and remediates language acquisition in Spanish, and then students transition into the Wilson Reading Program where students learn the English morphology and study the language. Dallas ISD uses an instructional program using visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile modalities that help students that helps students decode the language.

It took Gonzalez about a year to be able to change the way his brain processed language. Being able to share his experience and his own struggles with parents and teachers is important for Gonzalez. It shows them that there’s a success story behind every struggle.”

“The first thing that changed for me was my confidence’” Gonzalez said. “My inside was able to shine because now I knew I wasn’t dumb. I just needed a different way to break the code—reading is a code. There was a pathway that was lit, that I could see and follow. I am a licensed therapist because I was a kid at 8 years old when I got the dyslexia services that changed my life.”