State education law says that every Texas third grader must have a good understanding of fractions at the end of the school year.
But how each student is taught this vital math skill varies widely in the Dallas Independent School District.
While students in one classroom may learn the difference between two fractions by comparing denominators written on a white board, some in another may be holding pieces of a chocolate brownie model cut into different sizes.
Such variation in teaching not just third-grade fractions but all state-mandated Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in Dallas schools is a potential contributor to achievement gaps between students. This is especially likely in kindergarten through eighth grades, and in math and reading. That’s unfortunate.
Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde is hoping to soon narrow those gaps. She plans to roll out a uniform “instructional delivery” program districtwide for next school year.
We applaud Elizalde’s program, called the Comprehensive and Coherent Curriculum Strategy. The program will implement one top-tier curriculum for reading and math on every campus. Plans to regularly test for student achievement throughout the school year are an important component, allowing teachers and administrators to make needed tweaks to boost student mastery.
“We have a variety of different levels of rigor” in instruction, Elizalde told us. Beginning in June, administrators will begin training teams of teachers for each campus how to implement Amplify, a national reading curriculum, in kindergarten through eighth grade. Training of Eureka, a national math curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade, and Carnegie for sixth to eighth graders, also will start this summer.
The teams will then go back to their campuses and train the other teachers, who will then assess what tools they need to implement the curricula in their classrooms. Elizalde emphasized that while the instructional methods will be uniform, lessening the time burden on teachers to fully develop lesson plans, they will still be able to practice their “craft” as they wish. “These are not scripted lessons,” she said.
The cost of the program is steep: $15 million for the first year alone. But Elizalde says she is confident based on a pilot program this year involving 99 district schools that it will be money well spent.
An important component will be assessment of the program every nine weeks, when students will undergo nationally normed testing. Teachers and the district will adjust based on those results. To get a true gauge of the program’s worth, Elizalde says that even with regular assessment, it should be in place at least two years.
Dallas ISD received a B rating from the Texas Education Agency in August, maintaining its pre-pandemic rating. Yet some gaps persisted. Among fifth-grade emergent-bilingual students, results declined from 2021 and even pre-pandemic levels. We commend Elizalde and the district for taking steps to try and make learning more equitable.
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