‘ACE’ Program Yielding Results for Dallas ISD

Nearly two dozen Dallas Independent School District schools are on the "improvement required" list, according to the latest accountability ratings from the Texas Education Agency.

Several schools have been on the list for consecutive years, which has led to direct intervention by the TEA. The district hopes its new Accelerated Campus Excellence (ACE) program, put in place just last year, can help turn these struggling campuses around.

"ACE is a strategic staffing initiative that is designed to support our most struggling schools in the city," said Jolee Healey, the program's senior executive director. "We really focus on bringing in strong new leaders into schools and finding the most effective teachers to work with our students who need the most support."

ACE has been implemented at seven Dallas ISD schools that required improvement. After just one year in the program, six of the schools were able to meet state standards.

"Because of ACE we were able to strategically hire. That immediately made the biggest impact for our campus, having highly effective teachers in front of students every single day," said Laura Garza, principal at Blanton Elementary School, an ACE campus. "We really focused in on social-emotional learning. How are teachers communicating and building relationships with our children so they know within themselves that they can succeed?"

The district hopes expanding the program will yield similar results at low-performing schools like T. W. Browne Middle School. It's been on the "improvement required" list for the each of the last five years.

Stephanie Elizalde, chief of school leadership for Dallas ISD, said despite the low performance the school is making progress. She said a sixth year on the list is unlikely to result in the school being shut down by the state.