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Jan 22, 2009 4:28 pm US/Central
Gates Foundation Grant To Help Texas Schools
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
A grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will send more than $22 million, for research and data computer systems, to 10 high school education groups across the country, including the Dallas Independent School District.
In all, more than $8 million is being sent to organizations in Texas, including the DISD, the Communities Foundation of Texas, the College for All Texans Foundation, and the E3 Alliance.
DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said, "Educators in Texas are committed to using data and research to inform and improve their work with students, but without a reliable way to track their progress, even the best intentions can miss the mark."
The computer software and other systems will be used to help track student achievement. The hope is that by using the systems teachers and administrators will be able to identify and assist underachieving students, thus increasing the number of low-income and minority high school students that go on to college.
"Texas has long been a leader in accountability and standards-driven reform," said John Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Texas High School Project based at the Communities Foundation of Texas.
The DISD will receive $3.8 million of the grant.
While students are working in class at W.T. White High School, their principal, Orlando Riddick, has information on every grade, exam, and all the academic information of an individual student's school career, on a computer program called the "Dashboard".
The data-gathering provides a direct path to evaluate the education needs of each student and can also be used to evaluate the work of teachers.
"So what I'm able to do is look up, historically, are they [teachers] able to grow my students, based on the information I'm getting right here," Riddick explained. "Are they able to grow students the way that students need to be grown for the mission of the district, for the mission of our campus and for the mission of our community?"
Nationwide just over 70-percent of students graduate from high school. The rates for African American, Hispanic, and low-income students are even lower, hovering at slightly more than 50-percent.
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