In Leading Off this morning, I made mention of the schools rated as failures by the TEA. It’s called the PEG list, for Public Education Grant schools. The district’s spokesman, Jon Dahlander, is doing his best to keep everything in perspective. Yes, DISD has more schools on the PEG list than any other district in the state (it’s the second-largest district, after Houston, ahead of Fort Worth and Austin), but the number of exemplary and recognized campuses at DISD increased this year from 103 to 128. The DMN story mentions that. What it doesn’t mention is the following, from Dahlander:
Six of the 48 schools that were today’s PEG list were rated Recognized by TEA this year. Because the list includes results from the previous two years, it does not take into account improvements made during the last year. If it did, that would bring the number of schools on the PEG list last year to this year from 52 to 42, which would be about a 20% decrease.
I know where the comments will take us. “You’re such a DISD apologist, Rogers! My tax money is wasted on that joke of an institution!” Don’t disappoint me.
