{"id":377937,"date":"2025-11-14T08:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T08:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/377937\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T08:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T08:47:13","slug":"gold-ribbon-for-dallas-area-schools-proves-reforms-are-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/377937\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gold Ribbon\u2019 for Dallas-area schools proves reforms are working"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Jack Lowe Sr. Elementary<\/a>, staff and students speak about 25 languages, and 98% of the student body is considered economically disadvantaged. The school in Vickery Meadow, one of Dallas\u2019 most diverse neighborhoods, is also one of the best-ranked elementaries in Dallas ISD, earning an A in an independent assessment of Texas schools by the nonprofit Children at Risk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even better news? Lowe Elementary is not an outlier. Public schools across North Texas are delivering a better education to low-income students. The number of schools in the region that received the Gold Ribbon designation from Children at Risk for being high-performing and high-poverty schools almost doubled this year compared to last.<\/p>\n

In the previous assessment, 52 North Texas neighborhood schools were awarded this status. Following the latest report for the 2024-25 academic year, 90 schools earned the Gold Ribbon. The number jumps to 101 with magnet and charter schools, which were added to this year\u2019s evaluation.<\/p>\n

Children at Risk\u2019s latest A-F rankings<\/a> are an important third-party assessment of Texas schools. The nonprofit uses its own methodology and rates schools across student achievement, student growth in STAAR and campus performance, comparing a school\u2019s test scores with those of other schools with similar poverty levels. High schools are also assessed for college readiness. <\/p>\n

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Like the Texas Education Agency, which has its own A-F rankings, Children at Risk relies on STAAR results for its ratings, but it weighs some elements differently.<\/p>\n

In addition to DISD, several other school districts had campuses listed among Children at Risk\u2019s top rankings for the region, including Frisco, Plano and Coppell ISDs and the Uplift Education charter system, among others.<\/p>\n

These latest results are a confirmation that education reforms in Dallas ISD and beyond are working. Earlier this summer, we highlighted the remarkable gains in DISD<\/a>, the largest district in the region. The district has consistently grown its number of high-performing schools and shrunk the list of failing schools, and that is worth celebrating. <\/p>\n

Good results take time, and they are validation that we have the right policies in place. DISD\u2019s pay-for-performance approach with the Teacher Excellence Initiative, or TEI, is now a reference for the rest of the state. It stands as confirmation that investing in the best teachers and principals pays off.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also important to invest in the right curriculum and pedagogy. Quality materials and other initiatives have paved the way for DISD\u2019s overall grade to climb from a C to a B in the most recent state ratings. <\/p>\n

For the region to continue on this path, it is critical to foster in-system school choice. Parents should have options within their district to send their children to schools with programs that align with their kids\u2019 needs, interests and talents. <\/p>\n

Robert Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk, pointed out that schools have improved statewide despite several years without additional funding from the state Legislature. Lawmakers boosted public schools by $8.5 billion this year, but just as important as adequate funding is promoting the right reforms in our school districts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Jack Lowe Sr. Elementary, staff and students speak about 25 languages, and 98% of the student body…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":377938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,16213,407,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,181473],"class_list":{"0":"post-377937","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-dallas-isd","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa","20":"tag-we-recommend"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115547186564700558","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377937","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=377937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}