As National School Choice Week winds to a close, Dallas ISD is making a final push to draw families to dozens of options available within the district.The district has received almost 12,000 applications at its specialized campuses, including magnet schools, STEAM and STEM academies, early college high schools and dual language programs.The application deadline for the 2017-18 school year is Tuesday.DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa praised the district’s efforts during Thursday’s board of trustees meeting. Both nationally and in Texas, school choice week has brought attention to vouchers and other proposals that would give students options outside of traditional public schools.“When you hear the rhetoric in Austin and Washington, there is choice -- despite what you hear otherwise,” he said.Hinojosa pointed at applications from current eighth-graders as an indication that DISD’s offerings were proving popular. Nearly 62 percent those students had used the application process to apply at a campus other than their home school, he said.Around 3,500 of those applications were to the district’s early college academies, a concept the district will have expanded to its 20 traditional high schools by the start of the next school year. Only 125 seats are available at each campus. The program allows students to graduate with an associate’s degree or 60 hours college credit.This marks the first time that DISD has consolidated the application processes for all its varied offerings into a single process.Beverly Lusk, in her second year as principal at Dealey Montessori, said the process seemed as smooth as ever. On Monday, the pre-K/8 campus had the most applications for any school in DISD, 918 submissions for only 113 spots. The next closest school was acclaimed arts magnet Booker T. Washington, with 556 applicants.“People start calling early in the school year, wanting tours and thinking about that application process,” Lusk said. “So we start those tours in October -- and we do have a lot of interest.”DISD chief of school leadership Stephanie Elizalde said she felt “really good” about the new format, which created “a better sense of urgency” among parents and students.The district started kicked off the effort with its “Discover DISD” event in early December 2016, a school fair held at Ellis Davis Field House featuring representatives from every campus in DISD.Since then, the district’s communications department has used billboards, radio ads, social media and direct mail to spread the news, according to communications chief Toni Cordova. On Wednesday, the district even co-hosted a phone bank on the local Univision affiliate, trying to reach its Spanish-speaking parents. The district has received only 600 applications for the 1,000 new seats in its two-way dual-language programs, Cordova said.“We’re just looking for different avenues to make sure that the message is getting to the community,” Cordova said.On Saturday, the district will hold a scaled down version of its “Discover DISD” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Jubilee Park and Community Center in south Dallas, at 907 Bank Street. The event is free.** Continue reading...
‘There Is Choice' in Dallas ISD, as Application Deadline for Specialized Schools Draws Near
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