History
1800s
The Dallas public school district in its current form was first established in Dallas in 1884,[10] although there is evidence that public schools had existed for Dallas prior to that date.[11][page needed] Mayor W. L. Cabell ordered just one month after the June 16, 1884, district founding that "all former Ordinances in relation to the city public school are hereby repealed," and the district's 1884–85 superintendent, a Mr. Boles, had enrollment figures for each year from 1880 through his own tenure;[12]
The Dallas Directory of 1873 expressed regret that "there are no public schools in Dallas," while the 1875 Directory said that "the schools are near perfection."[13]
The 1884 organizational meeting coincides with changes in statewide education law establishing a system of school districts, each to be assigned its own number, with the ability to levy taxes and raise funds as well as to determine the length of school terms and other educational decisions. The state superintendent of schools, Benjamin M. Baker, praised the new law's abandonment of tying teachers' salaries to the number of pupils attending, a practice he called "a relic of barbarism."[14]
By 1884, six schools were operating. Four were designated for "whites" and two for "colored/black",[15] as school segregation was the legal policy in Texas at the time. Booker T. Washington High School is one of these original schools, beginning as "Colored School No. 2" in 1884 and adopting its later name in 1902.[16]
School District Expansion
Dallas ISD has annexed many schools and school districts throughout its history:
The school system expanded from offering 11 grades to a modern 12-year program as of 1941. Initially, the change was resisted by families who felt the additional year would be too expensive, though others promoted the addition of a further year of athletics and some anticipated an ability for gifted students to finish the 12-year program in as little as 10.5 years, although that hope did not prove a reality.[19]
The period from 1946 to 1966 saw construction of schools, with 97 of the district's school buildings erected during this period, at a peak of 17 schools in 1956 alone.[20]
Desegregation
School desegregation in Texas did not begin for nearly six years after the United States Supreme Court made its May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education decision, nullifying the previous doctrine of "separate but equal" public facilities. The Dallas school board commissioned studies over the next several months, deciding in August 1956, that desegregation was premature and that the segregated system would stay in place for 1956–57.[21]
In 1957, Texas passed legislation requiring that districts not integrate their schools unless district residents voted to approve the change. An August 1960, election for this purpose ended with voters rejecting desegregation. Meanwhile, a lawsuit was filed by the district against the state superintendent on August 13, 1958, with the goal of a resolution of conflicts between federal and state courts on the subject of integration.[21]
In 1960, the district initially adopted a plan to desegregate grade by grade, starting with the 1961 first-grade class, and proceed year by year until desegregation had been achieved. The plan was amended only weeks later to provide for movement of students at parent request.
On September 1, 1965, the elementary schools were ordered to be desegregated, initially to be followed by the junior high schools in 1966 and the senior high schools in 1967; however, the Fifth Circuit United States Court issued an order on September 7 that led to amending the ruling so that all twelve grades must be desegregated as of September 1, 1965.[21] A book on the history of DISD published the following year by the school district made the statement, "Desegregation of the Dallas Schools was accomplished in the course of ten short years with a minimum of commotion and stress ... [due to] the patient and sympathetic understanding ... and the flinty determination of the School Board ... to serve the public in their lawfully constituted duty."[22] In September 1967 Dallas ISD states that its schools were desegregated.[23] However, lawsuits against the district from parents of Black children continued for decades.
During one desegregation lawsuit in the 1970s, a judge suggested that students from different schools could interact via television instead of forcing desegregation busing in the district. The parties filing suit did not like the plan.[24] After the forced busing desegregation, in the 1970s many White American students and families withdrew from district schools en masse.[25]
While DISD believed it had complied with the Brown ruling from 1954, Sam Tasby of Love Field disagreed. He had to send his two children several miles to an all-Black school, despite there being an all-White school within walking distance of his house. On October 6, 1970, Tasby filed a lawsuit against DISD claiming that the school district continued to operate a segregated system.[26]
Tasby's challenge wound its way through the courts over the next 33 years, eventually getting passed to Judge Barefoot Sanders. After a series of hearings, Judge Sanders found that DISD continued to show signs of segregation and constituted the Desegregation Plan for the Dallas Independent School District.[27]
In August 1983, the DISD school board finally ended its fight against court-ordered desegregation by unanimously accepting the Fifth Circuit's upholding of Judge Sander's desegregation plan. From that time on, DISD would remain under Sander's oversight until he declared it desegregated.
In June 2003, 49 years after Brown v Board was decided, Judge Sanders ruled that Dallas ISD was desegregated and no longer subject to his oversight.[28]
1990s and 2000s
In 1996, DISD announced that it would en masse rezone many areas to different schools. DISD officials said that the rezoning, which would affect over 40 campuses, would be the largest such rezoning since at least the 1950s.[29]
In the summer of 2005, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) ordered the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District closed for the 2005–2006 school year due to financial stress and reported mismanagement. After negotiations, Dallas ISD agreed to accept the students for the 2005–2006 school year. The Wilmer-Hutchins ISD district was absorbed into Dallas ISD in summer 2006.
Dallas ISD opened 11 new campuses in the fall of 2006.[30] The district incorporated the WHISD territory via "Plan K," adopted on November 30, 2006.[31]
From 2005 to 2007, several northwest Dallas area public schools under Dallas ISD jurisdiction became infamous due to the outbreak of a Dallas-area recreational drug, a version of heroin mixed with Tylenol PM, called "cheese," which led to several deaths of Dallas-area youths. Dallas ISD issued drug dog searches to schools in order to combat the problem.[32]
Dallas ISD was reported in April 2008 to have the 7th highest dropout rate of any urban school district in the US.[33]
Circa 2012 the district was shutting down some schools in central Dallas which had enrollment declines, while it was building new schools in outlying areas of the district, which had population increases. That year five schools were opening,[34] with most of them in Southeast Dallas and Seagoville. The district planned to close eleven schools in the same year; the income levels in the neighborhoods hosting the closing schools tended to be very low and student populations had consistently declined.[35] Of the nine board members, the vote was six to two in favor of closing with one abstention.[36]
By 2016 the district was expanding the use of two-way bilingual programs, with 24 schools of 51 two-way bilingual programs beginning that year.[37]
Effective July 1, 2018, four elementary schools originally named for confederate generals were renamed:[38][39]
COVID-19 Pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas, in 2021 the DISD board voted to require masks, contradicting Governor of Texas Greg Abbott's order to disallow school districts in the state from having mask mandates.[40] Despite the Texas Supreme Court stating that Abbott had the authority to remove mask mandates, Dallas ISD kept its mask mandate in place.[41]
Data Breach
On August 8, 2021, Dallas ISD suffered a data breach affecting the information of students and employees from 2010 to 2021.[42]
Data from the 2019–2020 school year indicated that 52 percent of students suspended from the Dallas ISD were African American, and 2.4 percent were white. In response, the district stopped using suspensions as a disciplinary practice in 2021, instead sending suspended students to "reset centers".[43]
Student makeup
As of 2015[update] some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the central city area are actually in the Highland Park Independent School District (HPISD), not DISD. The student body of DISD has a higher percentage of Hispanics, a slightly lower percentage of non-Hispanic Whites, and a higher percentage of low income students compared to the Houston Independent School District (HISD), which includes some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in central Houston.[66] In 2010 DISD had a higher number of black students in its boundaries attending charter schools compared to HISD, even though HISD had more black students living in its boundaries.[67]
Dallas ISD Enrollment Data 2017–2018[68]
| Grade
|
Number of
students
|
Percent
|
| Early childhood education & Pre-kindergarten
|
12,679
|
8%
|
| Elementary School (K-5)
|
72,284
|
46%
|
| Middle School (6-8)
|
31,759
|
20%
|
| High School (9-12)
|
40,110
|
26%
|
Dallas ISD Ethnicity Data 2017–2018[68]
| Ethnicity
|
Number of
students
|
Percent
|
| Hispanic
|
109,228
|
69.6%
|
| African American
|
35,340
|
23.5%
|
| White
|
8,402
|
5.4%
|
| American Indian or Alaska Native
|
91
|
0.3%
|
| Native Hawaiian/Other or Pacific Islander
|
96
|
0.1%
|
| Asian
|
2,139
|
1.4%
|
| Two or More Races
|
1,136
|
0.7%
|
Demographic history
In 1968 DISD had 159,527 students, with 52% of them being Anglo whites.[69] In 1970 the district had 94,383 Anglo white students.[70] In 1973, half of DISD's students were White. As time passed, the White population decreased due to private schools and white flight.[71] In the fall of 1978 there were 132,061 students, with 34% of them being white.[69] By 1979 there were 42,030 Anglo White students.[70]
In the 1980s and 1990s the DISD student body was majority black. In 2000 almost 161,000 students were enrolled, with 52% being Hispanic, 38% being black, and 9% being white. That year 73% of the students were on free or reduced-price lunches, meaning they were classified as being from socioeconomically poor families.[67] As of 2003, DISD was 58% Hispanic, 34% African American, 6% White, and 2% Asian and Native American. As of that year, 190 DISD schools were 90% or more combined black and Hispanic, 37 schools were 90% or more Hispanic, and 24 schools were 90% or more black.[71] White flight continued into the 2000s and 2010s, as there was a 55% decrease in the white student population from 1997 to 2015. In 2008 the Anglo White student population bottomed at 7,207, and the decline stopped afterward.[70] In 2010 157,000 students were in DISD schools, with 68% being Hispanic, 26% being black, and 5% being white. From 2000 to 2010 the number of Hispanic students had increased by 23,000, an increase by 7%; while the number of black students had declined by 19,000, a 31% decrease. That year, 87% of DISD students were on free or reduced-price lunches.[67] Eric Nicholson of the Dallas Observer wrote that by 2016 the number of Anglo whites was "actually increasing slightly — very slightly — over the past couple of years."[70]
In 2009 the State of Texas defined "college readiness," or readiness to undergo university studies, of high school graduates by scores on the ACT and SAT and in the 11th grade Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests. Holly K. Hacker of The Dallas Morning News said that DISD schools "showed extreme highs and lows in college readiness."[72] Regarding the selective DISD magnet schools, Hacker said that they "prepare virtually all graduates for college."[72] Throughout the DFW metroplex, the highest college readiness rates were found in the School of Science & Engineering and the School for the Talented & Gifted. Hacker said "[t]hough they serve some students with lower incomes, the campuses have a huge advantage because they accept only those with high test scores."[72]
By 2016 the growth in the number of low income students, previously significant, had stopped.[70]
Demographics by racial group
As of 2003, some schools in DISD still had significant numbers of White American students. Usually they were up to 15-20% of a school's given population. Many schools with significant White populations were in the East Dallas and North Dallas areas and mostly white sections of Oak Cliff, such as Kessler Park. Elementary schools that had significant White populations included Nathan Adams, Hexter, Lakewood, Mockingbird (formerly Stonewall Jackson) Elementary, Pershing, W.B. Travis Vanguard & Academy, Preston Hollow, and Harry Withers. Middle schools with significant White populations included Franklin, and Long middle schools. High schools with significant White populations included Hillcrest, W.T. White, and Woodrow Wilson.[71] Seagoville High School and its feeder schools also had white populations.[citation needed] Circa 2016 the white population consistently made up 5% of the DISD student body. In 2016 Nicholson wrote that "By the end, DISD's Anglo exodus could be rationalized as a response not to racial mixing but to concentrated poverty, flagging test scores and an inept administration perennially mired in scandal."[70]
From 2000 to 2010 the number of black students decreased by 20,000. In 2010 that was the lowest in the post-1965 history of DISD. One reason for the decline in the percentage of black students is the move of black people to suburbs; they did so due to a perception that public schools there have a higher quality than those in DISD, as well as general desires for higher quality housing and lower crime environments. Another reason was the growth in charter schools which take students who would otherwise attend DISD schools; in 2010 5,900 black students attending charter schools in the area lived in the DISD boundaries. Other reasons for the decline in the percentage of black students included a perception that DISD has moved its focus away from black students and towards Hispanic students, and the fact that many Hispanics have moved into traditionally black neighborhoods.[67]
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