2nd of 2 part series
By: Jackie Hardy, NDG Contributing Writer
Last week we took a look at the luncheon recently held at Bear Creek Community Church of Irving bringing concerned parents, school officials and community activists to hear keynote speaker Dr. Robert Sanborn, President and CEO of Children’s At Risk non-profit organization and co-author of the Texas Public School Ranking Report. The discussion focused on strategies to improve the recent low ranking received by the District.
This week we are taking a look at the impact of the lack of diversity on the board of trustees and staff, despite serving a majority minority student population.
Presently, the breakdown of the District’s minority population consist of approximately 71 percent Hispanic or Latino, 13 percent African American, three percent Asian, one percent American Indian/Alaskan Native, and less than one percent Hawaiian/Pacific Islander equating to 80 percent of the total student population. Contrary to having a student minority-majority there are no minorities currently holding any of the seven board of trustees seats.
“We really need to have far more involvement and engagement within our minority community particularly among African Americans and Hispanic Americans,” according to Walker.
“There’s a power base there that is absolutely incredible; although we’ve been deemed as an economical disadvantage district there are financial resources within those two communities that are very equally strong and powerful as well, there are educated folks within those communities that can potentially be movers and shakers …we got to be more involved in the political process,” urges Walker who believes one of the reasons few minorities run for office is there is a culture of fear of push back and/or repercussions, if a person speaks out.
According to the District, minorities excluding paraprofessionals and classified employees (i.e. food services, facilities) make up approximately 39 percent of its employees (Asian/American Indian and Alaska Native less than 1%, African American 15%, Hispanic 24%, and Caucasian 59%).
In the past, the lack of diversity both in the classroom and within administration has been a criticism of the District with respect to having a staff to reflect its student body as many feel this is also critical to closing the achievement gap among minority students.
“It is vital for children of all stripes to see folks in administration, on school board, and as teachers. They will believe that they too can achieve. We also need to make sure contracts are bidding fairly and equally. District needs to serve its customers and not just the well connected good ole boys and girls,” comments Emmanuel Lewis, community activist and candidate running for Dallas County Clerk.
In a recent NBC 5 interview, Bibiana Mendez, a McArthur High School Biology teacher, expressed how Parra’s appointment to superintendent has been inspiring to her students much like it was when Obama was elected President because students are able to see it is obtainable.
Economic disparities were other factors the report, according to Sanborn, took into account when calculating the rankings of a District like Irving; where a large portion of its schools qualify under Title 1. Per the Irving ISD, all its elementary (20) and middle schools (8) are considered Title 1 schools.
“Economic disparities are inextricably linked to school performance, and while they can’t be controlled for, we do account for that in the School Rankings. We address economic disadvantage in the Campus Performance Index, which is worth 20 percent of a school’s overall ranking calculation.
In this Index, a regression line forecasts how we could expect a school with a given percentage of economically disadvantaged students to perform on that indicator, and the Performance Index value reflects whether the school is performing at, above, or below that expected level.
Irving ISD is in the 12th percentile in the Achievement Index. However, the district is 82 percent economically disadvantaged, and when this is taken into account it is in the 35th percentile in the Performance Index,” he explains.
Sanborn advised standardized test scores tend to show bias toward schools with more affluent students; therefore, the Performance Index was created to evaluate the effectiveness of a school’s programs and its people independent of difference in economic status.
“It really goes back to the home, and certainly in schools what are the expectations that you have for these children. We all know and research points very clearly that children will rise up to where the bar is set for them.
Our District is really trying to address the issue that we realize our youngsters are economically disadvantaged, but at the same time we want to maintain extremely high expectations so that our youngsters know they can achieve as well.” adds Walker.
“I want students to see their situation is not a limitation. It’s simply a condition at that moment that they have the ability to change,” comments Parra made in an interview with NBC 5 that aired this past January regarding the economic challenges facing many Irving ISD students.
Irving ISD continues to utilize technology and sees it as an important tool in reaching parents and remaining proactive in addressing student academic concerns.
Parent Connect and Grade Speed are online programs where parents can monitor their child’s attendance, grades and behavior in the effort to stay abreast of their child’s overall performance.
“I am very, very proud to be a part of a District to where we have aligned technology with education, comments Walker. We work very closely with our technology department and we have computer classes where parents can have a comfort level in terms of using the technology; so we are trying to do all that we can to bring our parents right along to where these students are and where the world is in terms of technology,” advises Walker.
“Under the board leadership and Dr. Parra’s leadership everyone is completely focused on student achievement and making sure kids are achieving at their highest level possible and that they are all reaching their maximum potential,” states Weaver.
Also according to Weaver, the District has initiated a program called INOVA which will help teachers and administrators track individual students academic, emotional and social needs in the effort to help educators create individualize plans for each student.
“We got to believe that all of our students can achieve, we got to believe as employees we can help them achieve and then we have to come up with ways to make that happen,” comments Weaver regarding the philosophy of the District.
