“
I feel like this is a testament to a community rallying together before there’s funding, before there is political will, to ensure that we’re doing the right thing so that we can really take the lead for the rest of our state.”
Dallas ISD’s progress has not happened all at once, nor has it been achieved alone. The ongoing gains in reading are the result of a sustained commitment to early learning in collaboration with strategic partners, funders, convening organizations, and policymakers.
These stakeholders have worked together for several years to improve early literacy outcomes in Dallas, tackling the problem piece by piece to ultimately establish the conditions for early learning success. Their journey and the lessons they have learned from it provide a path to accelerated progress for other communities also looking to rewrite their early literacy stories.
The conditions for success to grow early learning outcomes require building foundations to enable the work, setting a clear vision that guides the work, and developing a strategic plan to achieve that vision.
In need of funding and strategic partnership to build the foundation for long-term early learning success, Dallas ISD, local policymakers, and members of the business and philanthropic community made three major investments.
First, Dallas ISD officials, led by Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, worked with the Board of Trustees to pass policies and annual budgets that prioritized early learning. This resulted in a commitment to fund full-day PreK for all eligible four-year-olds, despite the fact that this was not funded by the state, a move that Manns called “unprecedented.” The district committed to paying for this out of its existing operating budget for the long term. “The decision [to prioritize early learning] was easy to make, but difficult to implement,” said Hinojosa. “We had to repurpose other dollars… to set aside $6 million every year from our general fund.” This sustained investment made it possible for PreK to play a key role in the district’s early literacy efforts.
Second, the district aligned its organizational structure to early learning efforts, bringing previously disparate leadership on early childhood and community partnerships together into a dedicated single team for early learning. This newly empowered team has evolved into the Early Learning department, responsible for the district’s strategy for PreK through second grade and currently led by Assistant Superintendent for Early Learning, Derek Little. Having a single team specifically dedicated to early learning allowed for clear accountability and ensured consistent attention would be paid to improving third grade reading performance.
Third, business leaders and philanthropists organized to launch Early Matters Dallas (EMD), which acted as a backbone organization to coordinate community champions and to advocate for effective early learning policy. EMD also raised funds for a strategic partnership between Dallas ISD and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which BCG co-funded along with businesses, foundations, and individual donors. “We at EMD decided that [bringing in BCG] would be our first big project in helping the Early Learning department,” said Mary Jalonick, former CEO of the Dallas Foundation and member of the EMD governing board. Jalonick noted that BCG brought expertise that Dallas ISD needed to drive the initiative, particularly management experience and rigorous analytical capabilities. BCG operated as a close partner with the district, embedded within the Early Learning department to provide ongoing support and working hand-in-hand to develop and implement strategies to support their vision.
In need of funding, talent, and strategic partnership to build the foundation for long-term early learning success, Dallas community leaders made three major investments
In need of funding and strategic partnership to build the foundation for long-term early learning success, Dallas ISD, local policymakers, and members of the business and philanthropic community made three major investments.
First, Dallas ISD officials, led by Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, worked with the Board of Trustees to pass policies and annual budgets that prioritized early learning. This resulted in a commitment to fund full-day Pre-K for all eligible four-year-olds, despite the fact that this was not funded by the state, a move that Manns called “unprecedented.” The district committed to paying for this out of its existing operating budget for the long term. “The decision [to prioritize early learning] was easy to make, but difficult to implement,” said Hinojosa. “We had to repurpose other dollars… to set aside $6 million every year from our general fund.” This sustained investment made it possible for Pre-K to play a key role in the district’s early literacy efforts.
Second, the district aligned its organizational structure to early learning efforts, bringing previously disparate leadership on early childhood and community partnerships together into a dedicated single team for early learning. This newly empowered team has evolved into the Early Learning department, responsible for the district’s strategy for Pre-K through second grade and currently led by Assistant Superintendent for Early Learning, Derek Little. Having a single team specifically dedicated to early learning allowed for clear accountability and ensured consistent attention would be paid to improving third grade reading performance.
Third, business leaders and philanthropists organized to launch Early Matters Dallas (EMD), which acted as a backbone organization to coordinate community champions and to advocate for effective early learning policy. EMD also raised funds for a strategic partnership between Dallas ISD and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which BCG co-funded along with businesses, foundations, and individual donors. “We at EMD decided that [bringing in BCG] would be our first big project in helping the Early Learning department,” said Mary Jalonick, former CEO of the Dallas Foundation and member of the EMD governing board. Jalonick noted that BCG brought expertise that Dallas ISD needed to drive the initiative, particularly management experience and rigorous analytical capabilities. BCG operated as a close partner with the district, embedded within the Early Learning department to provide ongoing support and working hand-in-hand to develop and implement strategies to support their vision.
In need of funding and strategic partnership to build the foundation for long-term early learning success, Dallas ISD, local policymakers, and members of the business and philanthropic community made three major investments.
First, Dallas ISD officials, led by Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, worked with the Board of Trustees to pass policies and annual budgets that prioritized early learning. This resulted in a commitment to fund full-day PreK for all eligible four-year-olds, despite the fact that this was not funded by the state, a move that Manns called “unprecedented.” The district committed to paying for this out of its existing operating budget for the long term. “The decision [to prioritize early learning] was easy to make, but difficult to implement,” said Hinojosa. “We had to repurpose other dollars… to set aside $6 million every year from our general fund.” This sustained investment made it possible for PreK to play a key role in the district’s early literacy efforts.
Second, the district aligned its organizational structure to early learning efforts, bringing previously disparate leadership on early childhood and community partnerships together into a dedicated single team for early learning. This newly empowered team has evolved into the Early Learning department, responsible for the district’s strategy for PreK through second grade and currently led by Assistant Superintendent for Early Learning, Derek Little. Having a single team specifically dedicated to early learning allowed for clear accountability and ensured consistent attention would be paid to improving third grade reading performance.
Third, business leaders and philanthropists organized to launch Early Matters Dallas (EMD), which acted as a backbone organization to coordinate community champions and to advocate for effective early learning policy. EMD also raised funds for a strategic partnership between Dallas ISD and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which BCG co-funded along with businesses, foundations, and individual donors. “We at EMD decided that [bringing in BCG] would be our first big project in helping the Early Learning department,” said Mary Jalonick, former CEO of the Dallas Foundation and member of the EMD governing board. Jalonick noted that BCG brought expertise that Dallas ISD needed to drive the initiative, particularly management experience and rigorous analytical capabilities. BCG operated as a close partner with the district, embedded within the Early Learning department to provide ongoing support and working hand-in-hand to develop and implement strategies to support their vision.
Many key stakeholders have been crucial to this effort, each playing a unique role. These groups recognized their shared goal of improving early learning outcomes and connected the dots to amplify their impact through sustained partnership.
Learn more about how Dallas ISD, funders, strategic partners, and policymakers connected the dots to improve early literacy outcomes in Dallas
As the organization directly serving students and families, Dallas ISD was the driving force behind early literacy efforts in Dallas. They had a vision for success and the potential for impact at scale given the breadth of students served. The district also played a crucial role in engaging its Board of Trustees to pass early learning policies that would ultimately serve as the template for state legislation.
BCG engaged in a sustained strategic collaboration with Dallas ISD, partnering with the Early Learning team to plan for and execute large-scale initiatives to improve early literacy. In particular, BCG partnered with the district to conduct rigorous analysis to identify opportunities for impact and enabled Early Learning staff to drive the work by developing a continuous improvement process.
EMD staff, part of the broader Commit Partnership, played a key role in connecting the dots between groups interested in improving early literacy in Dallas. EMD organized funders from both the business and philanthropic communities to support Dallas ISD’s early learning efforts and identified opportunities for collaboration with other Dallas-are school districts. EMD and Commit also took the lead on advocacy efforts to improve early learning policy at the state level.
Given the high potential for quality early learning to improve outcomes for children across Dallas and drive future economic growth, both philanthropic organizations and business leaders were highly interested in providing support. These groups contributed crucial catalytic financial resources to launch an initiative to improve third grade reading, including raising funds to enable the strategic partnership between Dallas ISD and BCG.
The Board of Trustees, responsible for holding district leadership accountable to results, played a key role in appropriate long-term funding for early learning and passing policies to support the work. State legislators then had the responsibility of scaling early learning best practices through new accountability and increased public funding for PreK.
Equipped with these investments, Dallas ISD partnered with BCG to develop a vision and strategy for early learning. Third grade reading performance became the district’s “true north” and the focus of their efforts.
All of this drove toward a lofty early literacy target, first set in 2014 and still in place today: 60% of third graders reading on grade level by 2025.1 While the goal focuses on a third grade outcome, district officials understood the need to invest in students much earlier than third grade to ensure they were developing as learners and as readers. The district focused on improving Kindergarten readiness, a major milestone on the path to proficient third grade reading. This included an emphasis on expanding access to and demand for full-day Pre-K, given Pre-K’s positive impact on a student’s later academic performance and potential to close achievement gaps. “In the early years… if we did nothing else, we had to get more students into our Pre-K program because we know that participation in our program alone has long-term benefits for the child,” said Little. Kelsey Clark, a BCG partner leading the effort, underscored this: “Pre-K levels the playing field for economically disadvantaged students, helping them enter Kindergarten at the same level of preparation as their more affluent peers.”
Dallas ISD built a data-driven strategic plan aligned to their vision to improve early literacy outcomes. This plan focuses on four key levers: increasing enrollment, improving classroom quality, supporting children beyond the classroom, and building departmental capacity around data analysis and continuous improvement.
To pull each of these levers, the district pursued a number of key initiatives, taken on over the years:
The Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI), a rigorous, multiple-measures teacher evaluation and compensation system, launched in 2014. The Early Learning team drew connections between CLASS and TEI, cross-walking rubrics and using data to confirm a correlation between the two to ensure that both quality initiatives were aligned.
The Accelerating Campus Excellence (ACE) initiative, launched in 2015, incentivized high-performing teachers and principals to work at underperforming schools. Once again, Early Learning aligned with this broader turnaround strategy, focusing coaching support on the lowest performing schools., including ACE campuses.
The district has also created classroom settings tailored to support its many bilingual students and English language learners; Early Learning recruited coaches with bilingual qualifications to meet the needs of these classrooms, and is committed to providing trainings and curriculum materials in the Spanish language for bilingual teachers and students.
Early Childhood and Community Partnerships team created
PreK partnerships developed and expanded to offer quality PreK access
Early childhood case for change developed for Dallas County
Commit facilitated "PreK roundup" to advertise PreK enrollment collectively with districts across Dallas County
Early learning strategic plan developed in partnership with BCG
Vision and goals centered around third grade reading and K-readiness
Early Childhood team expands to lead K-2 efforts in addition to PreK and adds data analysts to team
Early Matters Dallas formed to rally community partners in the business, civic, and philanthropic communities to support early learning efforts in Dallas County
The Early Childhood Infrastructure Fund established to accelerate the early learning strategic plan with support from BCG and to enable long-term partnership
Department begins building out fact base from which to make data-driven decisions
Infant-toddler home visits begin in partnership with Avance
Three-year-old PreK launches
Instructional coaching launches in select PreK environments with CLASS adopted as measure of classroom quality
Early Childhood and Community Partnerships restructured to Early Learning, breaking down silos within the department and adding staff to lead family engagement work
Derek Little joins Dallas ISD Early Learning as Assistant Superintendent
School board passes policy to ban suspensions for early learners
District commits $65 million over 10 years to Early Learning
Early learning family engagement, communication, and marketing strategies developed
Social-emotional learning added to curriculum
Early learning officially prioritized as strategic initiative of District, with Kindergarten readiness goal adopted as formal school board goal
BCG and Early Matters Dallas produced a report on the childcare landscape and the workforce gap
Board passes PreK policy and underlying regulation, formalizing key strategic initiatives and providing long-term foundation for early learning
Instructional coaching expands to K-2 classrooms in lowest performing schools
PreK enrollment and K-readiness added to Superintendent scorecard
Vision expands to a whole child focus across the entire early learning continuum (prenatal-3rd grade)
K-2 curriculum created to better support 3rd grade reading goal
Board expands PreK eligibility for additional students via scholarships
House Bill 3 passed; Comprehensive School Finance Reform including mandatory full-day Pre-K (with Partnerships), Literacy Academies, Science of Teaching Reading Cert, K-3 literacy strands
House Bill 18 that promotes social-emotional learning support for students is passed
TX-KEA becomes overall kindergarten-readiness progress monitoring tool
Department adopts continuous improvement process
Early Learning department creates values and behaviors aligned to the vision
Continuum of Care strategy defined to further emphasize support for the whole child acoss entire early learning continuum
Early Childhood and Community Partnerships team created
PreK partnerships developed and expanded to offer quality PreK access
Early childhood case for change developed for Dallas County
Commit facilitated "PreK roundup" to advertise PreK enrollment collectively with districts across Dallas County
Early learning strategic plan developed in partnership with BCG
Vision and goals centered around third grade reading and K-readiness
Early Childhood team expands to lead K-2 efforts in addition to PreK and adds data analysts to team
Early Matters Dallas formed to rally community partners in the business, civic, and philanthropic communities to support early learning efforts in Dallas County
The Early Childhood Infrastructure Fund established to accelerate the early learning strategic plan with support from BCG and to enable long-term partnership
Department begins building out fact base from which to make data-driven decisions
Infant-toddler home visits begin in partnership with Avance
Three-year-old PreK launches
Instructional coaching launches in select PreK environments with CLASS adopted as measure of classroom quality
Early Childhood and Community Partnerships restructured to Early Learning, breaking down silos within the department and adding staff to lead family engagement work
Derek Little joins Dallas ISD Early Learning as Assistant Superintendent
School board passes policy to ban suspensions for early learners
District commits $65 million over 10 years to Early Learning
Early learning family engagement, communication, and marketing strategies developed
Social-emotional learning added to curriculum
Early learning officially prioritized as strategic initiative of District, with Kindergarten readiness goal adopted as formal school board goal
BCG and Early Matters Dallas produced a report on the childcare landscape and the workforce gap
Board passes PreK policy and underlying regulation, formalizing key strategic initiatives and providing long-term foundation for early learning
Instructional coaching expands to K-2 classrooms in lowest performing schools
PreK enrollment and K-readiness added to Superintendent scorecard
Vision expands to a whole child focus across the entire early learning continuum (prenatal-3rd grade)
K-2 curriculum created to better support 3rd grade reading goal
Board expands PreK eligibility for additional students via scholarships
House Bill 3 passed; Comprehensive School Finance Reform including mandatory full-day Pre-K (with Partnerships), Literacy Academies, Science of Teaching Reading Cert, K-3 literacy strands
House Bill 18 that promotes social-emotional learning support for students is passed
TX-KEA becomes overall kindergarten-readiness progress monitoring tool
Department adopts continuous improvement process
Early Learning department creates values and behaviors aligned to the vision
Continuum of Care strategy defined to further emphasize support for the whole child acoss entire early learning continuum
Establishing these conditions for success has required persistence through challenges, which appears to be paying off for students. “Navigating the process… was not easy by any means,” said Miguel Solis, a Dallas ISD trustee who played a key role in the eventual passage of foundational early learning policies within the district. Yet despite the initial difficulty, Solis noted that the district’s “long-term investment actually has paid huge dividends. Third grade literacy is up, kindergarten readiness is up. And we know those two indicators, probably more than any other indicator, are going to predict a child’s success moving forward.”
State policymakers have taken notice of the district’s progress. Dallas ISD’s early learning results became a key proof point that informed the eventual passage of Texas’ House Bill 3 (HB3), a landmark piece of 2019 legislation that provides state funding of full-day Pre-K for low-income students along with accountability in support of high quality early learning experiences.3 “Much of HB3 is modeled after the success of Dallas ISD, so it’s been a huge factor in why we’ve now been able to have this influx of funding all across the state,” said Manns. Dallas’ business and philanthropic leaders rallied around the district’s effort and invested in collectively establishing the conditions for success. Manns noted the power of this investment, which is now being scaled through policy.
I feel like this is a testament to a community rallying together before there’s funding, before there is political will, to ensure that we’re doing the right thing so that we can really take the lead for the rest of our state.”
Reagan Elementary's journey over the last four years is a clear illustration of Dallas ISD's progress on early literacy. The school, located only a few blocks from Dallas' rapidly gentrifying Bishop Arts District, serves a community where 90% of students are economically disadvantaged and over 70% are English Language Learners. Despite the challenges these students face when navigating the effects of poverty and learning a new language, Reagan Elementary's third grade reading results have significantly improved since the district expanded its investment in high-quality early learning.
Over the past four years, the percentage of third graders reading on grade level has more than tripled, rising from 21% in 2015 to 64% in 2019. Reagan Elementary's third grade reading performance is now more than twice as high as what would be expected based on the school's high rate of economic disadvantage, a strong indication that the school is beating the odds. District-provided early learning-specific coaching support for PreK teachers and the launch of a PreK-3 program on campus are laying the foundation to make Reagan's gains sustainable moving forward.
Enrollment in PreK is laying the foundation for improved early literacy outcomes at Ireland Elementary. Located in a section of Southeast Dallas where adequate childcare is difficult to access and 99% of students are economically disadvantaged, the school and its PreK programs have helped to fill the void and set students up for long-term success. Ireland Elementary has seen its enrollment in PreK nearly double since 2015, driven in part by the campus' recently launched three-year-old PreK program. Principal Stephanie Amaya said this PreK-3 program puts students "tremendously ahead of the game" and filled up quickly due to high parent demand.Ireland Elementary's third grade reading results have increased by 15 percentage points in the last two years, and Amaya believes that emphasizing PreK will make this growth sustainable. "We have a heavy focus on PreK to make sure that we're not working in third through fifth grade to catch students up, but being targeted [in early grades] to make sure our students are successful." And it isn't just academics: Amaya sees Ireland Elementary's early learning as the first step to developing future leaders. "A lot of the work we're doing at our campus, especially in PreK-2nd grade, is because we want to make sure that our students have that confidence to say, 'yes, we can be change agents… we can find something today to make an impact in our community.'"
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Dallas ISD Early Learning's instructional coaching program has greatly contributed to student success at Harrllee Early Childhood Center. The former traditional elementary school reopened in 2015 to serve students in grades PreK-2nd, a rebirth that is in many ways symbolic of the district's emphasis on early learning. All teachers at Harllee receive coaching support from instructional specialists who specialize in early learning, in line with the school's stated vision to give all children "access to exceptional developmentally appropriate early childhood instruction" and all educators "access to an outstanding early learning model."
Camerron Mason, a Kindergarten teacher at Harllee, believes coaching is a key contributor to her success in the classroom. "[My coach and I] work together… It's really nice to have another set of eyes so that if you really do need that support, someone is instantly there to help you," said Mason, who also noted that it was "absolutely, 100%" important that her instructional coach had expertise in early learning specifically. The district's early learning coaching model is cited by stakeholders across the district as perhaps the most important driver of improved instructional quality, both at Harllee and across Dallas ISD elementary schools.
Family engagement and serving children before they even reach school age are both driving improvement in student outcomes at Hogg Elementary, located in Dallas' Oak Cliff neighborhood. By meaningfully engaging parents and "doing all of the little things right," as one parent put it, the school has created a welcoming environment for families. 97% of parents feel comfortable interacting with staff and 100% of parents believe the school responds to parent concerns, according to a district survey. One specific family engagement effort at Hogg is the district's HIPPY program, which works with parents of children as young as two years old in their home to help them be confident as their child's first teacher. HIPPY isn't Hogg's only means of supporting children before they enter school: the campus has also partnered with ChildCareGroup to house an infant and toddler childcare center on site. This, combined with Hogg's PreK-3 and PreK-4 programs, means that a student can receive high-quality learning opportunities on campus across the entire early learning spectrum while simultaneously providing consistent childcare for parents. Hogg's family engagement efforts and emphasis on supporting learning even before children reach school age have contributed to nearly 40 percentage-point growth in third grade reading scores since 2014.