Seventy-five of 138 applicants to the fourth-grade class at Williams for the 2019-20 school year identified as white. Source: Dallas ISD.
TAG, YOU ’ R E I T Dallas ISD turns to magnet schools to bring families back to the district IN 2018, DALLAS ISD OFFICIALS predicted that turning Sudie L. Williams Elementary School into Sudie L. Williams Talented and Gifted Academy (TAG) would attract more students. They were right. Since the board of trustees approved the change, total enrollment at the school has doubled, from about 205 in the 2017-18 school year to 420 this year. At the time, community members protested the decision they perceived to be sudden, but the transition wasn’t out of character for DISD. The district was facing a problem: wealthier white families were enrolling their children in private schools, and DISD had not figured out how to bring them back.
DISD data from 2016 shows that 850 children zoned to Williams attended private schools in the area. Changing Williams to a magnet school has affected the student body. There was an exodus of students, when those who attended the under-enrolled elementary but didn’t test into the magnet program were rezoned to nearby K.B. Polk Elementary. But even before Williams became a TAG school, enrollment dropped when about 60 students who lived at a nearby apartment complex had to move after their housing was torn down. As a magnet school, Williams requires students to submit applications. Keisha Crowder-Davis, the executive
Story and art by RENEE UMSTED
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prestonhollow.advocatemag.com
MAY 2021
