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(Dallas ISD)<\/p>\nBy Jirah Fleming
Dallas ISD<\/p>\n
In Sunny South Dallas, the seven legacy schools that make up the Lincoln-Madison vertical team are celebrating a milestone that reflects strong leadership, dedicated families, and a community invested in its own future: a B rating for all of its schools.<\/p>\n
Charles Rice Learning Center, often called a \u201cbeacon of hope\u201d in South Dallas, had long been the anchor of success in the area, standing as the only school of the seven, to consistently maintain a B rating over the years. Paul L. Dunbar Learning Center and James Madison High School later joined Rice in maintaining consecutive B ratings.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Dallas ISD)<\/p>\n
When the Texas Education Agency released its school ratings this summer, the rest of the vertical team\u2019s schools \u2014 Lincoln High School and Humanities\/Communications Magnet, Billy Earl Dade Middle School, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Arts Academy, and H.S. Thompson STEAM Academy \u2013 joined the others with B ratings of their own.<\/p>\n
A product of south Dallas, Rockell Stewart is the executive director of the Lincoln-Madison vertical team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am beyond proud of the principals, the staff and the students,\u201d said Stewart. \u201cIt\u2019s been almost a decade since every school in South Dallas has been B-rated. The work that I\u2019ve seen the principals and teachers pour into their schools has been phenomenal to witness.\u201d
Stewart leads with intentional care, guided by an African principle that begins with a simple question: \u201cand how are the children?\u201d The response, \u201call the children are well,\u201d reflects her vision for South Dallas.<\/p>\n
For Stewart, this answer that reaches far beyond test scores to address the health, safety, and opportunities every student deserves is key to the success of the vertical team schools.
\u201cI am always asking what their needs are because when students and schools prosper, the community transforms,\u201d she said. \u201cI want everyone to feel safe in our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building on success<\/strong><\/p>\n The vertical team\u2019s newest member, H.S. Thompson STEAM Academy, had not been rated since reopening in 2021 as an elementary school.<\/p>\n Its principal, Jennifer Atkins, who previously led Rice Learning Center in obtaining consistent B ratings, was entrusted to do the same for the new school.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was an assistant principal, my principal at the time would say \u2018my time is going to be up soon, but people like you have to keep it going,\u2019\u201d Atkins said. \u201cThe older generation pours into the younger generation, and we keep the cycle going. That is our legacy in South Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n Building on Rice\u2019s success, the feeder pattern has reached a unity the community has not seen in a long time.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Another contributor to the vertical team\u2019s success, Atkins said, is the presence of veteran students, along with veteran teachers, whose impact on children at an early age helped lay the foundation for long-term achievement.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen children started at Rice in pre-K and went through fifth grade, there wasn\u2019t a high turnover with students,\u201d said Atkins. \u201cThis is what I am trying to do here at Thompson. I want students to continue to come back. We want to keep our students in rotation in our schools in South Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n Atkins would like them to come back even after they graduate from college. Today many of those same South Dallas graduates are now teachers themselves, carrying forward the legacy by preparing the next generation academically.<\/p>\n It\u2019s about community<\/strong><\/p>\n The commitment to success is shared not only by the principals and team members in the vertical team schools but also by the families and community leaders.<\/p>\n Stewart understands that student learning can be affected by challenges in their personal lives and is working to provide services to ensure students don\u2019t miss school because of outside barriers.<\/p>\n Partnerships with local faith leaders and churches, community events, impactful school branding, and educational programming are all catalysts for the schools\u2019 recent success. For those invested in the South Dallas schools, this moment goes beyond academics, it is a silver lining, a time of celebration, and a glimmer of hope for the community.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I think of our legacy in South Dallas, for me it\u2019s about being a light for our students,\u201d Atkins said. \u201cBecause many times they\u2019ve been written off, but it takes leaders like us to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jirah FlemingDallas ISD In Sunny South Dallas, the seven legacy schools that make up the Lincoln-Madison vertical…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":217473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-217472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-tx","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115184204918378956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
There is also a priority for the emotional well-being of teachers and principals, keeping them uplifted and affirmed as they do the daily work of guiding students, Stewart said.<\/p>\n