Each year, the Commit Partnership produces the Dallas County Community Scorecard in the hopes of celebrating progress and learning from bright spot school systems.
But the 2020-21 school year was like none other, and our 2021 Scorecard is different from what came before it as a result.
Since the formation of Commit in 2011, Dallas County students have exceeded state growth across each of the Scorecard indicators that our Partnership chose to measure annually, despite a higher rate of poverty and a greater percentage of Emergent Bilingual students within our region.
But now the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the delivery of instruction and the continuation of student success. It will once again require all stakeholders to coalesce around proven best practices and new approaches to address the root causes of our troubling outcomes and overcome this generational crisis.
Thankfully, we have courageous and student-centered educators, school leaders and superintendents right here in Dallas County whose example we can look to. We’ve highlighted some of them in a series of recent videos included in this year's Scorecard.
As we approached our ten-year anniversary, the Commit Partnership made important updates to its strategic approach. You’ll find evidence of our broadened scope in the appearance of a twelfth indicator included on the Community Scorecard: livable wage attainment among Dallas County young adults.
We still deeply believe Dallas County can be an inclusive and prosperous region where economic opportunity is shared by all rather than consistently predicted by race, place and socioeconomic status. But it will take all of us to create the enabling conditions that reverse the impact of systems built up over decades that currently hinder success for many of our children.
This work is long-dated. It will take time, continued resolve, and trust. But as author James Clear recently noted, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” We hope you’ll join us as we work to raise the level of our systems to best serve all of our students.
In gratitude,
Todd Williams
Chairman and CEO
