teacher

elementary school teacher

signaller

english teacher

special education teacher

Dallas Independent School District

Let me first say that I treasure the time I spent working with the students of DISD.  However, I have never felt so invalidated by an employer in my 27 years in education. Central Staff salaries were stagnate for four years.  In 2019 they made "market salary adjustments" to reward their "seasoned" employees.  They raised 15 year employees in my position to what they determined was midpoint based on the Texas Association of School Boards study.  This midpoint amount was within $300 of what I earned as an employee with 27 years of experience and with a PhD.  Some of these employees received 12K to 13K increases.  Then there were those of us who got basically nothing because we were already at midpoint.   I asked HCM if a 27 year employee is at midpoint, how would one get to maximum pay?  HCM informed me that they only way I could reach the upper end of the pay scale was to "just keep working."  Maybe someone else would accept that, but I can do the math.  These 15 year employees will reach maximum pay at year 26 of their employment.  I would reach maximum pay at year 38.  They took care of external equity and ignored internal equity with no regard for those of us being shortchanged.  I submitted a very thoughtful and detailed salary review request to the director of my department for a salary correction.  It remained on her desk and was never submitted.  The window for salary reviews closed, and I was left with no recourse.  This is par for the course at DISD.  If you are just out of college and want to work in education, you will be compensated well.  However, DISD is not a good long-term plan from a financial perspective.  Based on my experience with DISD, I predict that no one will every reach maximum salary.  Midpoint with be the actual ceiling.   I'm absolutely certain that not a single  DISD board member would work for a pay structure such as the one that has been implemented for central staff.  It is simply an awful place to work because they have chipped away at employee morale for the last five years.  It has not always been this way, but over the last few years I have witnessed steady decline from a work satisfaction perspective.  I would not recommend DISD for employment.

Knowing that you, as the teacher of record, are the scapegoat and the bottom of the totem pole. The kids think it’s your fault that they’re bored with the drill and kill activities. How do you explain to them that it’s the way you are *required* to teach by your Executive Director and his or her underling, your principal? When you can make time to call parents, most of them are very supportive, but the trick is making the time with the other expectations upon you: you’ve got 30+hours of PD to earn by December (including compliance training); you’re expected to tutor once a week; you’ve got to get grades recorded and work on remediation and differentiation; attend weekly staff meetings; plan/prepare/post lesson plans AND detailed exemplars two weeks in advance by Friday afternoon. Oh, that’s a new thing - exemplars. Probably a violation of Texas state law by which administrators can only expect “brief and general” lesson plans, but it’s such a recent requirement that it has yet to be tested by the grievance process and AFT Alliance. 

What’s the most stressful part of working in DISD? I’ll have to cheat on this and say that it’s the system. I don’t entirely blame the administrators at any level. I’ve heard they’re under intense pressure as well. They can lose their jobs at any time if scores aren’t where they are supposed to be and there is constant evaluation of student “data.” The most efficient thing to do is to just teach the discrete skills which dampens enthusiasm for teacher and student but at least you CYA when you’re evaluated at spot observations - which are five a semester. 

If you must work for DISD, join a teachers union. It’s worth it. If you can work anywhere else, do it unless you want to challenge yourself to see how closely you can adhere to a micromanaging, prescriptive, and highly regimented teaching methodology: the “bible” currently on my admin’s desk: Get Better Faster by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo). Read that. If that style of teaching in an “urban” (Bambrick’s adjective) setting appeals to you, more power to you. I would say, maybe it’s me; maybe I don’t have the right stuff. However, I know it’s not just me in my building who is desperately unhappy

At least a my elementary school this was the case. I had so many good students who loved learning with potential, and this was at a T1 school, but the problem was the Behavior students ran the school. I saw students be punched in the stomach for no reason by behavior students. Students being stabbed with pencils by other students, students throwing chairs at the teachers desks. Some students were afraid to come to school because of this. The students are not disciplined when teachers make referrals nothing was done. It was very saddening. I had a wonderful class of 22 students. Maybe 2 were behavior but the others loved learning and I had enough experience to learn to work with the children with behavior problems. All in all I think that your experience will vary from school to school, but if you accept a position in a low income area expect my story to be yours. I would love to help these students but I am not comfortable with waiting for the day a student assaults me. I am leaving the district My heart goes out to the children I am leaving they are sweet and curious, but eventually they will get tired of getting hit and they are going to hit back or worse. It is so sad to see a lower elementary student going down the path of going to jail and not being able to do anything. I had a strong team of supportive teachers, but admin did not want to take charge of behavior because they were scared of the parents. I pray this changes for the sake of the children.

To much work to do on a daily basis, very stressful with little time to comply with all the requirements. On a daily basis a teacher get the students at 7:45 from a determine place, take them to the classroom and serve breakfast. After cleaning, routines takes place. Teachers needs to have a very strong classroom management in order to have a successful  learning environment. As a teacher we have to deal with students behavior and low academic performance, work with small group and reteach skills. There are so many situations going on every day. Taking students and picking them up from specials,cafeteria, different school activities, and dismissal.  Be ready to do any other assignment given by the principal on a last minute notice. Go to PD, meetings, parents conference, tutoring and parents conference after school ends. Many unhappy staff specially around State testing. The hardest part is preparing the students to pass the State Test (main focus during the school year) not being able to really teach the necessary skills to have successful students. See students struggles and frustration because the testing practices are overwhelming to students and teachers  all year round.   The most enjoyable is to work with the students an see them grow, learn and succeed  in academics.

This is easily one of the best places I've ever worked. The workload has been challenging and ever changing. We've had a little bit of turnover with retirements at higher levels and younger employees moving on to other opportunities. Despite the challenges that come when methods retire with the employee, everyone comes together as a team to overcome those challenges. It's the first place I've worked where that happens. If the opportunity comes up, I'd work here in a heartbeat. The only downside are the health benefits really. Even with the employer paid benefits, as a young dad, I'm still looking at spending half of my salary on health insurance. I opt out because as it is, I have just enough to pay rent, buy groceries, and make it to and from work. It's a living wage, but we're always one paycheck away from disaster. On top of that, I'm spending 2 hours in a car each day because living close to work is either unaffordable, or else I'm leaving my family in a dangerous part of town. My only real gripe is that the compensation and benefits leave something to be desired. That being said, since I've been here, I've been provided opportunities to pursue other professional interests. Business management, iOS development, Web, SQL, Oracle. It's just a matter of choosing what you want to learn and then getting it on a schedule. Great place to grow.

-Working for Dallas ISD was very similar to working for any other major school district in the USA. I was assigned a section in a grade level (Pre-K and First Grades). I had to work from Monday through Friday. The day began at 8:15 AM and finished at 3:15. 
- We had 30 minutes for lunch, and we had to attend faculty meetings, usually once a month; also to extraordinary Faculty meetings as needed. -
-We also had to attend school special activities after school, and sometimes on one or two Saturdays  for some special events in the school community.
-At my school, Casaview Elementary, the workplace culture was very good. I certainly have a respectful relationship with all of my Administrators and my colleagues as well as with other members of the school staff. I still keep in touch with several of them.

-I did enjoy teaching the bilingual program, and seeing how my students were progressing in both languages (English and Spanish.)
Bilingual Programs are a plus at any school district.
-We had our Teacher lounge; students had playgrounds and sports facilities. I was given the opportunity to introduce my kids into Tennis, as an after school fun activity.

-Personal reasons made me move to Raleigh , NC.

It really comes down to your administration.  There are a few excellent principals and coaches that will support you with resources, training, and coaching, but many more that will not.  The beginning of the school year starts with empty promises to provide resources and a clear path to success. But it never happens, especially if you are a bilingual teacher trying to teach everything necessary for the standardized tests and in both languages.  The hardest part for me was teaching AND creating resources for the kids, because you do have to create in order to target specific standards.  Expectations are unreasonable and there simply is not enough time to do both the teaching and the creating.  The expectation is that you do both along with being a counselor, interventionist, a mediator, and a student with countless hours of meetings and trainings.  The last few years had been exceptionally hard with the new pay structure as well.  Everyone is competing for those coveted higher-pay slots because each campus is allocated only a few.  Working together with your teammates was always the highlight of my previous years, but that ended with the new pay structure.    

In  the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD), students at the middle and high school level may choose to attend their neighborhood school or any school in the district through a lottery system. High schools focus on different career pathways, and students apply to these schools based on their interests.  The students and parents of the Dallas ISD are wonderful. It is a great urban experience for educators.  However, with Dallas ISD being one of the largest and diverse school districts in Texas, the DISD employee moral is below the expectations of any professional educator.    

As an former employee of the Dallas ISD, it is my experience that  educators are subjected to school and district workplace bullying. Although there are federal laws that are supposed to be honored to avoid this unfair treatment, the workplace is hostile and filled with teachers and other school workers that file complaints against supervisors,  who abuse their authority to harass or intimidate employees which impacts employee morale and retention.  The Dallas ISD needs to work on setting and enforcing clearer expectations for professional behavior,  and absolutely back it up with written policy...doing so would create a better foundation for a better working environment for everyone.

Education workplace culture with emphasis on elementary education. 
Mainly, engaged pupils in learning to meet local and state objectives
for elementary grades. Elementary school teaching employs a creative spirit in bringing to life activities to develop the skills of students. The total person is in development, so the educator is 
sharing not just the information about subject matter, but values.
The most difficult aspect of elementary education is being responsible for insuring mastery in skills for multiple subjects for
class sizes of over 15 students with varying learning styles.  This
previously mentioned aspect of teaching is, additionally, considered
part of and related to classroom management.  Record keeping,
allowing students to participate in class by being a "student helper",
promptness, and  providing pertinent, immediate feedback throughout the school day to students about classwork are management areas in education.  There is  continuous communication between teacher and student.  Teachers are involved in the planning and preparation of learning by mentoring faculty, department heads, and administrative staff.

If you're looking for an organization that likes to heap on extra busywork that multiplies each and every year, in an industry that functions as society's favorite scapegoat, look no further! This school district is in love with chasing the latest shiny new initiatives in education and then quickly discarding them for the next year's initiatives. Administrators have a culture of making it look like they're working hard by heaping extra initiatives on their already overwhelmed teachers. Professional development opportunities are usually forced and repetitive. The pay-for-performance "growth culture" here leaves little room to breathe. Sometimes it feels like we spend more time talking about how to teach than actually teaching. You will be forced to self-report your shortcomings to multiple people each year in redundant soul-searching growth sessions. To make matters worse, the district is busy cannibalizing its own schools by introducing a choice system of specialty schools all competing with each other to look like they're the most fun to students and parents. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 29 salaries reported	$66,095 per year
Elementary school teacher 6 salaries reported	$63,583 per year
Signaller 1 salary reported	$27,218 per year
English teacher 3 salaries reported	$67,000 per year
Special education teacher 13 salaries reported	$63,137 per year

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