Time Capsule Project Achievements Since 2005 - a focus on the future!

• The oldest Time Capsule Project DISD middle schools (Quintanilla 2005 & Greiner 2009) now have the highest 3-year average SEI* scores of all 31 DISD middle schools!  
• The 5 middle schools with newer Time Capsule Projects have achieved an average 3-year SEI gain of 6.7 points per school!  
• The 24 middle schools with no Time Capsule Project suffered an average 3-year SEI loss of 0.7 points during the same years.  
• Sunset, with the oldest high school Time Capsule Project, has now changed one of the worst DISD graduation rates a decade ago into the highest of all 22 non-magnet high schools! (Calculated as the balance between 9th grade size and number of diplomas given within 4 years without corrections allowed in state calculations.)
• See charts & details in October 2016 blogs at www.StudentMotivation.org.

Annual goal-focused letter writing is now recommended for all grades in Time Capsule Project schools. It is also recommended that the request for parents to write a letter about their dreams for their child come directly from the student in a personal letter. This was first done in May 2016 with the result that the old 30% parental response rate almost tripled! As many as 85% of parents responded with a potentially priceless letter to their child.  

The third Quintanilla 10-year reunion will be this year, scheduled as planned before Career Day.  The 8^th grade class of 2007 will return to pick up their 2007 letters in time for volunteers to be secured for Career Day. Eighth grade students were told a decade ago to be prepared to give such talks. They speak with current students on Career Day about life after middle school, their employment and preparation for it, and what they would do differently if they could be 13 once again. Is it easy to understand why the SEI is rising?   

* “School Effectiveness Indices (SEI’s) are Dallas ISD's value-added measure of the academic performance of a school's students. The SEI model is an alternative to evaluating school performance with absolute measures such as passing rates. SEIs are a fairer method for determining a school's effect on student performance because they take into consideration known factors over which school personnel have no control, such as socio-economic status, language proficiency, and gender.”
      From https://mydata.dallasisd.org/SL/SD/SEI/Default.jsp with 18 years SEI data by school.     

School Effectiveness Indices over 3 years & DISD Time Capsule Schools

The 11 Time Capsule Project Schools serving over 15,000 Dallas ISD students are the most rapidly improving schools in the district.

It is clearly documented that the 8 Time Capsule Project middle schools have the most consistently improving School Effectiveness Indices (SEI) scores of all 31 Dallas ISD middle schools!

Dallas ISD has a 14 year collection of priceless school achievement data in the School Effectiveness Indices (SEI) database, online at https://mydata.dallasisd.org/SL/SD/SEI/Default.jsp .  The SEI is a measure of how much students are improving during their years at a school.  It is one of the most valuable education measurement available in school district management.  Magnet schools do not necessarily have the highest SEI scores as the students who enter them are already achieving at a high level. Record setting progress beyond that is a challenge.

Below is a chart of the most recent three years of SEI scores for all 31 non-magnet DISD Middle Schools. The 7 schools with Time Capsule Projects are highlighted in yellow.  All 31 schools are listed in order starting with the highest most recent SEI score. The three year average is also given with the ranking by that average given.

The two schools with the oldest Time Capsule Projects have the highest average 3 year SEI scores of any middle schools in DISD. Since they were already achieving high SEI scores three years ago, their rise has slowed down. The 5 newest Time Capsule Project schools which started three years ago with an average SEI of only 42.8, are improving rapidly to catch up with the two more tenured Time Capsule Project schools.  They have improved an average of 6.7 points over the past 3 years!  The rest of the 24 non-Time-Capsule-Project schools reflect no such progress as a group.  They have lost an average of 0.7 points during the last 3 years.  

Dallas ISD Time Capsule Project Middle Schools compared with normal Middle Schools on SEI

(Since Rosemont was the newest middle school, and has a relatively small student body compared to the other schools, it was not included in this listing.)

The above chart is about improved SEI due to only having 8th graders write letters planning their futures. Many improvements have happened within the past 6 months! 
This year each of these schools began to have all three grades of students writing letters each year to practice and improve their letters year to year, building toward the 8th grade letters that stay in the schools time capsule for a decade.

In addition, now students have one additional writing project that starts off the project each year. They personally write a persuasive letter to their parents asking for a letter back about their parent's dreams for them.  This change both prepares the students to receive their parents thoughts back on this central issue and replaces a letter from the teacher or principal.  It has more than doubled the percentage of parents who write a letter to their child about their dreams for them.  Now as many as 85% of parents are writing letters to their child!

Next year all 7th and 8th grade students, and their parents, will receive back the letters they wrote this year to read before new letters are written.  The quality of the letters being written will hopefully continue to improve.

With this increased focus on the future, and planning by both parents and students every year, the schools SEI scores will continue to rise.  None of these improvements are reflected in the above SEI scores.  The SEI scores should continue to improve as these changes become normal annual events in Time Capsule Project schools.

At this time one elementary school is planning to apply such a future planning system to their language arts writing projects, storing the letters in a vault they have in the school.

Parental Involvement more than doubled in a middle school!

Written parental dreams for a child can become a treasured possession. Sadly for the years since 2009 when a project to get such letters from parents started, a 30% response rate was about the best achieved. Now that has changed to over 80%! 

The process of discussing these goals within the heritage of the family, and updating those dreams over time, changes lives. The world becomes a very different place, especially in middle school and high school.

The School Time-Capsule Project started in 2005.  Then it was only focused on students writing letters to themselves at the end of 8th grade.  Since 2009 the project has encouraged parents, and/or important relatives, to write letters to their student about their dreams for them. Such potentially priceless letters have rarely been written for more than 30% of students. A copied request for this letter sent home with students has not been very effective in getting parents to write. 

A new approach was started in 2016. 

First, instead of being only an 8th grade exercise the letter writing was expanded to be done by all students in Quintanilla, all three grades. 
Second, students themselves wrote a personal letter to their parents asking for a letter back about their dreams for them. 

The results have been dramatic. As many as 85% of students have now received one or more such priceless letters back, almost a 200% increase! 

The letter may not be written in English, but that makes no difference!  It is priceless.

Students also ask for one story from their family history to be included in the letter, a story the writer of the letter wants them to remember 30 years into the future, an important piece of their family heritage and history.

The resulting letters should be immediately shared with and studied by the students at home so any questions can be answered.  That often leads to valuable discussions at home.

Then the letters are all brought to school and used in Language Arts Class as students write letters to themselves about their own plans for the future.

Parents and/or relatives should be prepared to write such letters to their child every year from 6^th through 12^th grade, until their child graduates from high school. 

A child changes greatly in just one year.  Each letter will be different, with a different story from their family history.  The more a child knows about their family history, both painful stories and wonderfully positive stories, the better.  It all helps ground a child in a valuable personal heritage providing a solid foundation for life, and for school work. 

A written record is being created.

All the letters for each child (more than one relative can write a letter) would be placed into one self-addressed envelope for each student, along with the student's own letter to themselves, and then stored in the school time-capsule, a 500-pound vault bolted to the floor in a prominent place in the school lobby.

The vault is not necessary if teachers have other ways of storing such priceless letters. 

If parents immediately see how priceless these letters are, they can certainly ask to keep the letter at home and only send photocopies to school to place inside the time-capsule. Or a photo copy can be kept at home.  Such requests are certainly understandable regarding all these letters. 

Each year the letters from the previous year are returned to the child and family for use in preparing to write new letters. That changes with the 8th grade letters that are written with plans for 10 years into the future. The 8th grade letters remain in the time-capsule for a decade. 

A student can also choose to collect all three years of letters for placement into the final envelope that is kept secure in the vault for a decade.  It is a potentially powerful record of their middle school years.

Students must know that upon their return to get back their letters in 10 years they will also be invited to speak with current students about their recommendations for success.  Such priceless mentoring has already started at Quintanilla Middle School with the reunion of the Class of 2006.  It will now be an annual event, making the future ever more real for Quintanilla students. Achievement at Quintanilla should continue to improve.

In high school the annual letter writing pattern continues.  The final 12^th grade letter will also be planning for 10 years into the future. 

Imagine how powerful high school 10-year reunions will be as students read their letters, and their parents letters, once again.  Most important, imagine the power of what these former students can say to students sitting in the same seats they were in a decade earlier!

These are the plans working within the School Time-Capsule Project as of June of 2016. We have just completed the second 10-year reunion at Quintanilla Middle School.

Graduation rates for Quintanilla students have more than doubled and continue to rise.  Behavior problems are down and pregnancy rates are down. The most recent School Effectiveness Index (SEI) for Quintanilla is the highest of all 35 middle schools in Dallas ISD!  The chart below was made from the listing of all SEI scores for middle schools in DISD found in the DISD Data Portal at https://mydata.dallasisd.org/docs/SEI/SEI1415/201415_SEI_REPORT_LIST_no_div.pdf  

School Effectiveness Indices (SEI) details and history are online at https://mydata.dallasisd.org/SL/SD/SEI/Default.jsp 

These achievements happened in spite of the 96 percent poverty rate for Quintanilla students, which places Quintanilla within the most poverty stricken third of all middle schools in Dallas ISD!  In addition, discipline problems and pregnancy rates at Quintanilla have dropped dramatically since 2006.  The best birth control is active personal planning for the future!

Again, this year was the first year that all students wrote letters for the Quintanilla Time-Capsule.  It used to be only an 8th grade activity, but Quintanilla wants to raise their record SEI score even higher than the 59.3 in the above chart.  This change will intensify the focus on a future grounded in family heritage for all students in all grades.  With the return of the previous year's letters it should help lead to improved letter writing and planning in the 7th and 8th grades.  

Quintanilla will stay on top with the highest SEI, unless other middle schools begin to also have a more effective future focus with all of their students, the best competition possible for Dallas ISD students!

Actively planning for their futures, in active cooperation with parents and relatives sharing family heritage and dreams with them, will continue to help students of poverty achieve more like, and in some cases certainly better than, middle class students from any Dallas suburb! The progress must continue.

Helping Urban Children of Poverty achieve like Suburban Middle Class Kids

The power of expressed and documented parental dreams for a child cannot be over-estimated. The book "Dreams from my Father" by President Obama is only one example.  

The School Time-Capsule Project has worked since 2009 to encourage parents to write such priceless letters to their child.  The response has rarely been higher than 30%.  Now a new approach is being used.  We are now asking students to write a personal letter to their parents asking for such a letter back to them. Instructions are attached to the student's request.

This major improvement to the School Time-Capsule Project was the idea of Ms. Kiki Lincoln, the Language Arts Coach at Quintanilla Middle School. She described it to me yesterday!  This is a big improvement!

Imagine that these 6^th graders also ask their parents to include in that potentially priceless letter one story from their family history.  It should be a story that their parents want them to remember 30 years into the future, an important piece of their family story.

With such a personal request in a letter from their own child many parents will respond.  

The resulting parental letter would then be studied by the child, often leading to discussions with their parents. That letter would be brought to school and used in Language Arts Class as students write letters to themselves about their own plans for the future.

Parents should be prepared to write such letters to their child every year from 6^th through 12^th grade, until their child graduates from high school.  

A child changes a lot in just one year.  Each letter will be different, with a different story from their family history.  The more a child knows about their family history, both painful stories and wonderfully positive stories, the better.  It all helps ground a child in a valuable history providing a valuable foundation for life. 

A written record is being created.

All the letters would be placed into one self-addressed envelope for each student and then stored in the school time-capsule, a 500-pound vault bolted to the floor in a prominent place in the school lobby.  

If parents immediately see how priceless these letters are, they can certainly ask for photocopies of them to keep, or to place inside the time-capsule so that the originals can be kept at home.  That is certainly understandable, and encouraged if requested. 

Each year the letters from the previous year would be returned to the child and parents for use in preparing to write the new letters.  That only changes with the 8th grade letter that is written with plans for 10 years into the future.  The 8th grade letters will remain in the time-capsule for a decade.  

Students must also know that upon their return to get back their letters, 10 years after the 8th grade, they will also be invited to speak with current students about their recommendations for success.  Such priceless mentoring has already started at Quintanilla with the reunion of the Class of 2006 to retrieve the letters they wrote a decade ago.  It will now be an annual event, making the future ever more real for Quintanilla students.

In high school the annual letter writing pattern continues.  The final 12^th grade letter will also be planning for 10 years into the future. 

Imagine how powerful those high school 10-year reunions will be as students read their letters, and their parents letters, once again.  Most important, imagine the power of what these former students can say to students sitting in the same seats they were in a decade earlier!

These are the plans working within the School Time-Capsule Project as of May of 2016. We have just completed the second 10-year reunion at Quintanilla Middle School.

Graduation rates for Quintanilla students have more than doubled and continue to rise. The most recent School Effectiveness Index (SEI) for Quintanilla is the highest of all 35 middle schools in Dallas ISD!

These achievements are all in spite of the 96 percent poverty rate for Quintanilla students which remains!  In addition, discipline problems and pregnancy rates at Quintanilla have dropped dramatically since 2006.  The best birth control is active personal planning for the future!

This year is the first year that all Quintanilla students will be writing letters.  It used to be only an 8th grade activity, but Quintanilla wants to raise their record SEI score even higher than the 59.3 in the above chart.  This change will intensify the focus on the future for all students.  Quintanilla will stay on top, unless other schools begin to have a more effective future focus with all of their students, the best competition possible for DISD students!

Actively planning for their futures, in cooperation with their parents, will continue to help students of poverty to achieve more like, and in some cases certainly better than, middle class students from any Dallas suburb!  The progress must continue!

Quintanilla Time Capsule Reunion #2 & Progress!

This Friday, 4-22-16, in the early morning, over lunch, and after school, the letters the 8th grade Quintanilla Class of 2006 wrote to themselves will be returned.  Members of this class can come to Quintanilla from 7:30 to 9:30, or over lunch from 11:30 to 1:30, or after school from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. to pick up their letter.  They must bring their ID to pick up their letter from ten years ago. Hopefully the alumni from 2006 have already received a letter with these details.

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Here is a link to the newspaper coverage of the above event that went very well: http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2016/04/time-capsule-reveals-hopes-and-dreams-in-a-dallas-school.html/#commentsOuterWrapper
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Quintanilla achieved the status of the highest-performing middle school in all of Dallas last year with an SEI score (School Effectiveness Indices Score) of 59.3, the highest in the district! Quintanilla is a Dallas ISD middle school that has one of the highest 10 poverty levels of all 32 middle schools in Dallas ISD. The Quintanilla SEI was also higher than any of the 5 middle schools that are magnet schools.

School Effectiveness Indices for the past 2 years for 32 Dallas ISD Middle Schools 

Quintanilla has many of the same programs as other middle schools in Dallas ISD except for one program that has been only happening at Quintanilla for the past 12 years. That is the School Archive Project, or as it is now more frequently called, the Time Capsule Project.

This is the second year Quintanilla has had reunions of students who were in the 8th grade at Quintanilla 10 years earlier and wrote letters for the vault bolted to the floor in the school lobby. Having these students return is making the project more real for current students. They are realizing more that the future will be here and their letters really will be returned to them in 10 years. What they do now will make the difference for their future!

This year for the first time these returning students from a decade ago will be invited to volunteer to speak with current Quintanilla students on Career Day on May 2nd!  A priceless set of messages will be delivered about the decade after 8th grade.

Beginning in 2009 the first of 7 other middle schools in DISD with time-capsule projects will begin their own patterns of annual 10-year reunions for classes who have been writing letters since their schools' time-capsule projects started. These schools will all see hopefully similar achievement gains from an ever stronger student focus on their own future.

The photo on the left is of the Quintanilla Time-Capsule contents. It shows the 2015 shelf with the new letters from the 8th grade class of 2015 after the letters from 2005 were removed to return to the Class of 2005.  The letters from 2006 are still in the vault waiting to be returned to the 8th grade class of 2006 beginning on 4-22-16.

In the constant effort to continue to raise achievement, Quintanilla is now planning to request that all Quintanilla parents this May write letters to their student about their parental dreams for their student, and to begin an annual pattern of such letter writing.  A child changes a lot in one year.

In each of these letters we will also be asking each parent to tell one story from their family history that they want their child to remember when they are 40 years old.  What can be more valuable than to reinforce connections to a child's personal family history, along with parental dreams?

All Quintanilla students will then bring these priceless letters to their Language Arts Classes after STAAR testing.  They will use them to write a letter to themselves about their own plans for their future, and how they will achieve those goals.  Then all the letters for each student will be placed in one self-addressed envelope for each student and placed into the vault.  The 6th and 7th grade students will have their letters collected for the vault.  The 8th grade students will be writing the letter for 10-years into the future and will place their letter into the vault themselves after the normal annual photos are taken.

Next year the same process will be repeated at the end of the year except that 7th graders will receive back their 6th grade letters, and 8th graders will receive back their 7th grade letters.  The goal is to constantly write better, more complete plans for the future as the normal changes in life happen.  Parents will also be asked to write new letters each year as they observe their child's changes year to year.

With this process the achievement level at Quintanilla will continue to rise if all other factors in the school remain positive.