A New Year - Full of Bright Spots

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District. We are having an excellent start to this year. Our campuses had an outstanding first day thanks to the outstanding preparation of our teachers, principals and entire educational team.

I want to thank our students and families as well as the C-FB ISD team for adjusting so well to the new school start times. I enjoyed visiting the schools on the first day. I found teachers and students already engaged in learning and working on the district's goal of "high achievement for all students." I am looking forward to visiting all of our schools during the year and seeing our teachers and students in action.  I know that our schools will be filled with many  "Bright Spots."


In C-FB ISD, we are committed to this goal as well as continuous improvement. Over the last school year, we made great strides in meeting our goal and the four strategic objectives that support our strategic plan.

In the book Switch by Dan and Chip Heath, the brothers write about the importance of finding the "Bright Spots"; that means when we see what's working we need to celebrate the success, investigate why it is working and study how we can use those successes in other areas. This year, in C-FB ISD, we are going to celebrate "Bright Spots."

Here are few "Bright Spots" from the 2010-2011 school year.

• For the second year, C-FB ISD earned a Recognized Rating under the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Accountability Rating System; 12 campuses received Exemplary ratings; 19 campuses, Recognized ratings.
• The Education Resource Group (ERG) annually measures the academic and financial performance of all Texas school districts. By using multiple data, ERG determines the educational productivity of individual school districts in three areas: overall educational value, academic performance and finance performance. For 2010: C-FB ISD ranked 11 out of the 200 Texas largest school districts in overall educational value. For 2010, C-FB ISD ranked 17 out of the 200 largest school districts in academic performance and 49 in finance performance. What this tells our community is that C-FB ISD is achieving at academically high levels while spending tax dollars wisely.
• In the 2011 parent survey, parents were extremely satisfied; 90% were positive about their child's campus; 88.6%, about the district.
• In the 2011 staff survey, 93% said they were confident in C-FB ISD.

We have many "Bright Spots" in our district. If you have a "Bright Spot" you wish to share, please email the details to cfbinfo@cfbisd.edu. Our students and staff really are the best. We are seeing amazing achievements. Since Carrollton-Farmers Branch has a culture of continuous improvement, your educational team will deliver results.