ACE Leadership Newsletter
Week of January 9th - 13th
ACE Campus Support!
Email: dstovall@dallasisd.org
Website: https://www.dallasisd.org/ACE
Location: 9400 North Central Expressway, Dallas, TX, USA
Twitter: @ACEDallasISD
Mission, Vision, and Goals
Core Values
ACE 5
Starting Stronger by Building a Culture Consistency!
Happy New Year, and Welcome to our 2nd Semester! The new Semester brings opportunities for growth and improvement. The ACP results continue to show we are heading in the right direction, yet there is still more to improve.
The video below is a story of transformation and accelerating excellence. Concourse Village is a school in the Bronx, New York, with a similar story to all our schools. Located in one of the nation's poorest and highest crime rates, Concourse Village has historically been a struggling campus. Students were reading off grade level and would soon absorb another struggling campus in the area that had been closed. Sounds very similar?
Principal Alexa Sorden shares the story of how she led the turnaround. There are many parallels to our work, as she shares. She talks about building a schoolwide culture of consistency. Culture, often used interchangeably with climate, is not about how people feel. It is instead about the habits and the ways things are done on campus. Principal Sorden had a clear vision, and to ensure all staff could meet that vision, she provided quality professional development, monitoring, and coaching to staff while also gaining their input as they improved.
This short video has much inspiration and learning aligned with our work. As we begin this second Semester, we have the opportunity to improve our culture of consistency and excellence on our campuses that aligned with our ACE Mission and Purpose of Championing Equity and Excellence. As we shift to a department of support, we will emphasize the ACE Five strategies that ensure campus acceleration and success.
We will begin focusing on professional development and how we clarify high expectations for instruction. Why there? We have data, and our typical response is to reteach it all. However, was it taught the first time correctly? How were students engaged? How often did teachers check for understanding and adjust? These are essential to our school's success and creating a culture of success. This can only be clear if professional development and a model of excellence exist. As I visit, please share your vision of excellence and model of exemplar expectations as we walk your school to see instruction happening. Please see the slide deck for the Living the Learning PD, See It, Name it, and Do It, and the Elements of an Effective Lesson.
Let's be clear about the expectation for quality first instruction through our professional development to ensure all students are exposed to teaching and learning that will meet all students' instructional needs. I am excited about this next Semester as we inspire change on our campuses, across the district, and statewide. We have many stories similar to Concourse Village. Now let's exceed their success as a National Blue Ribbon Campus and set a culture of consistency and high expectations. With that culture, we will impact the climate and ensure people feel welcomed, loved, and excited to do this work.
Looking Ahead
1/18 - Principals Meeting
1/20 - Deadline for Principals to verify campus rosters in Oracle
1/20 - Teacher of Promise Campus Nominations Due
1/20 - Recommendations for 22/23 SY campus based-positions Due
1/25 - Departmental Updates
1/31 - Activity Funds Annual Training Requirement Due
Birthdays
Quinton Pipkins - December 17
James Wallace - January 4Stacy Ray - February 3
Lonnie Russell - February 6
Sandra Fernandez - February 6
Cynthia Lopez-Salinas - February 14
